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難說

简难说 · 繁難說

Mandarin · pinyin nán shuō

hard to tell (i.e. hard to judge or hard to predict)
cannot bring oneself to say it

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Characters in this entry

難: Look up this written character
說: shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
说: shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1 · nan2 shuo1

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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.

難說 · find source passages ↗ · 难说 · find source passages ↗

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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.

adj

hard to say

adv

(Xuzhou Mandarin, rhetorical question) Indicates a rhetorical question: surely it doesn't mean that...; is it possible that...

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

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