DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

窮酸

简穷酸 · 繁窮酸

Mandarin · pinyin qióng suān

(of a scholar) impoverished, shabby and pedantic
impoverished pedant

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

窮: Look up this written character
酸: suān · tart, sour; acid; stiff; spoiled
穷: qióng · poor, destitute, impoverished

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–1 · qiong2 suan1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

窮酸 · find source passages ↗ · 穷酸 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kung4 syun1

Cantonese word readings for 窮酸. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

adj

poor and pedantic

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack