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蜚短流長

简蜚短流长 · 繁蜚短流長

Mandarin · pinyin fēi duǎn liú cháng

(idiom) to gossip about others; to spread gossip or rumors

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Characters in this entry

蜚: fēi · cockroach
短: duǎn · short; brief; deficient, lacking
流: liú · flow, circulate, drift; class
長: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader; Kangxi radical 168
长: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–2–2 · fei1 duan3 liu2 chang2

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5character links1same-tone record

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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.

蜚短流長 · find source passages ↗ · 蜚短流长 · 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

(idiomatic) rumor; gossip

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

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