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群龍無首

简群龙无首 · 繁群龍無首

Mandarin · pinyin qún lóng wú shǒu

lit. a thunder of dragons without a head
fig. a group lacking a leader

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Characters in this entry

群: qún · group, crowd, multitude, mob
龍: Look up this written character
無: Look up this written character
首: shǒu · head; first; leader, chief; a poem; Kangxi radical 185
龙: lóng · dragon; symbolic of emperor
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–2–3 · qun2 long2 wu2 shou3

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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.

群龍無首 · find source passages ↗ · 群龙无首 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kwan4 lung4 mou4 sau2

Cantonese word readings for 群龍無首. 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

(of a group) to lack a leader

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

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