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花裡胡哨

简花里胡哨 · 繁花裡胡哨

Mandarin · pinyin huā li hú shào

gaudy
flashy (but without substance)

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Characters in this entry

花: huā · flower; blossoms
裡: Look up this written character
胡: hú · recklessly, foolishly; wildly
哨: shào · whistle, blow whistle; chirp
里: lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166

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

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Mandarin tones

1–5–2–4 · hua1 li5 hu2 shao4

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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.

花裡胡哨 · find source passages ↗ · 花里胡哨 · find source passages ↗

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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

(colloquial) showy; gaudy; garish

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

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