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聳人聽聞

简耸人听闻 · 繁聳人聽聞

Mandarin · pinyin sǒng rén tīng wén

to sensationalize (idiom); deliberate exaggeration to scare people

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Characters in this entry

聳: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
聽: tīng · hear, listen; understand; obey
聞: Look up this written character
耸: sǒng · urge on; rise up; stir, excite
听: tīng · hear; understand; obey, comply
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

3–2–1–2 · song3 ren2 ting1 wen2

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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.

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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) deliberately exaggerating so as to create a sensation

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

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