萬惡之源

简 万恶之源 · 繁 萬惡之源
Mandarin · pinyin wàn è zhī yuán

Meanings

  1. the root of all evil
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Characters in this entry

萬
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惡
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之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
源
yuán · spring; source, head; surname
万
wàn · mò · ten thousand; innumerable
恶
è · evil, wicked, bad, foul
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–1–2 · wan4 e4 zhi1 yuan2

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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.

萬惡之源 · find source passages ↗ · 万恶之源 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

  1. root of all evil; source of all evil
  2. (ACG, Internet slang, by extension, humorous) source of a meme; the original image, video, etc., that sparked an Internet phenomenon

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

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