DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

聞風喪膽

简闻风丧胆 · 繁聞風喪膽

Mandarin · pinyin wén fēng sàng dǎn

hear the wind and lose gall (idiom); terror-stricken at the news

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

聞: Look up this written character
風: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere; Kangxi radical 182
喪: Look up this written character
膽: Look up this written character
闻: wén · hear; smell; make known; news
风: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere
丧: sàng · mourning; mourn; funeral
胆: dǎn · gall bladder; bravery, courage

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–1–4–3 · wen2 feng1 sang4 dan3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character 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.

聞風喪膽 · find source passages ↗ · 闻风丧胆 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

man4 fung1 song3 daam2

Cantonese word readings for 聞風喪膽. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be extremely terrified of a certain person, group or thing

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

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