DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

門外漢

简门外汉 · 繁門外漢

Mandarin · pinyin mén wài hàn

layman

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

門: mén · gate, door, entrance, opening; Kangxi radical 169
外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
漢: Look up this written character
门: mén · gate, door, entrance, opening
汉: hàn · Chinese people; Chinese language

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–4–4 · men2 wai4 han4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character 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.

門外漢 · find source passages ↗ · 门外汉 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mun4 ngoi6 hon3

Cantonese word readings for 門外漢. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

layman; outsider; amateur

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack