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笨手笨腳

简笨手笨脚 · 繁笨手笨腳

Mandarin · pinyin bèn shǒu bèn jiǎo

clumsy
all thumbs

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Characters in this entry

笨: bèn · foolish, stupid, dull; awkward
手: shǒu · hand
腳: jiǎo · foot; base, leg, foundation
脚: jiǎo · leg, foot; base, leg, foundation

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–3 · ben4 shou3 ben4 jiao3

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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.

笨手笨腳 · find source passages ↗ · 笨手笨脚 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ban6 sau2 ban6 goek3

Cantonese word readings for 笨手笨腳. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(colloquial) clumsy; all thumbs

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

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