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醜人多作怪

简丑人多作怪 · 繁醜人多作怪

Mandarin · pinyin chǒu rén duō zuò guài

(saying) unattractive or untalented people tend to make spectacles of themselves

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Characters in this entry

醜: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
多: duō · much, many; more than, over
作: zuò · make; work; compose, write; act, perform
怪: guài · strange, unusual, peculiar
丑: chǒu · clown, comedian; second earthly branch

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Mandarin tones

3–2–1–4–4 · chou3 ren2 duo1 zuo4 guai4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

proverb

Ugly people tend to dress up weirdly or do weird things (to get attention).
(by extension) People without enough abilities tend to show off.

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

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