DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

身無長物

简身无长物 · 繁身無長物

Mandarin · pinyin shēn wú cháng wù

(idiom) to possess nothing except bare necessities; to live a frugal life

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
無: Look up this written character
長: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader; Kangxi radical 168
物: wù · thing, substance, creature
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
长: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2–2–4 · shen1 wu2 chang2 wu4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

身無長物 · find source passages ↗ · 身无长物 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

san1 mou4 zoeng6 mat6

Cantonese word readings for 身無長物. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack