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肝腸寸斷

简肝肠寸断 · 繁肝腸寸斷

Mandarin · pinyin gān cháng cùn duàn

lit. liver and guts cut to pieces (idiom)
fig. grief-stricken

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Characters in this entry

肝: gān · liver
腸: Look up this written character
寸: cùn · inch; small, tiny; Kangxi radical 41
斷: Look up this written character
肠: cháng · intestines; emotions; sausage
断: duàn · sever, cut off; interrupt

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · gan1 chang2 cun4 duan4

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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.

肝腸寸斷 · find source passages ↗ · 肝肠寸断 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gon1 coeng4 cyun3 dyun6

Cantonese word readings for 肝腸寸斷. 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) heartbroken; grieved
(idiomatic) starving

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

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