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聞一知十

简闻一知十 · 繁聞一知十

Mandarin · pinyin wén yī zhī shí

lit. to hear one and know ten (idiom); fig. explain one thing and (he) understands everything
a word to the wise

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Characters in this entry

聞: Look up this written character
一: yī · one; a, an; alone
知: zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
十: shí · ten, tenth; complete; perfect
闻: wén · hear; smell; make known; news

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–1–2 · wen2 yi1 zhi1 shi2

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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.

聞一知十 · find source passages ↗ · 闻一知十 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 jat1 zi1 sap6

Cantonese word readings for 聞一知十. 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

(idiomatic) to be quick on the uptake; to understand the whole situation from just a few clues

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

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