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談不上

简谈不上 · 繁談不上

Mandarin · pinyin tán bu shàng

to be out of the question

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Characters in this entry

談: tán · talk; conversation; surname
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
谈: tán · talk; conversation; surname

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

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Mandarin tones

2–5–4 · tan2 bu5 shang4

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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.

談不上 · find source passages ↗ · 谈不上 · 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.

verb

to be far from; to be nothing near; much less; out of the question

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

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