DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

閒來無事

简闲来无事 · 繁閒來無事

Mandarin · pinyin xián lái wú shì

at leisure
idle
to have nothing to do

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Characters in this entry

閒: Look up this written character
來: lái · come, coming; return, returning
無: Look up this written character
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
闲: xián · fence, guard; defend; idle time
来: lái · come, coming; return, returning
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–2–4 · xian2 lai2 wu2 shi4

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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.

閒來無事 · find source passages ↗ · 闲来无事 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

verb

to have leisure time with nothing to do

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

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