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誤人子弟

简误人子弟 · 繁誤人子弟

Mandarin · pinyin wù rén zǐ dì

(of a lazy or incompetent teacher) to hamper students' progress
(of media) to propagate errors
to lead people astray

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Characters in this entry

誤: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
弟: dì · young brother; junior; I, me
误: wù · err, make mistake; interfere

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–3–4 · wu4 ren2 zi3 di4

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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.

誤人子弟 · find source passages ↗ · 误人子弟 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ng6 jan4 zi2 dai6

Cantonese word readings for 誤人子弟. 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) to lead students astray

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

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