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貽笑大方

简贻笑大方 · 繁貽笑大方

Mandarin · pinyin yí xiào dà fāng

to make a fool of oneself
to make oneself a laughing stock

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Characters in this entry

貽: Look up this written character
笑: xiào · smile, laugh, giggle; snicker
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
方: fāng · a square, rectangle; a region; local
贻: yí · give to, hand down, bequeath

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–1 · yi2 xiao4 da4 fang1

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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.

貽笑大方 · find source passages ↗ · 贻笑大方 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ji4 siu3 daai6 fong1

Cantonese word readings for 貽笑大方. 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 be ridiculed by experts or intellectuals

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

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