雪泥鴻爪

简 雪泥鸿爪 · 繁 雪泥鴻爪
Mandarin · pinyin xuě ní hóng zhǎo

Meanings

  1. a goose's footprint in the snow
  2. vestiges of the past (idiom)
  3. the fleeting nature of human life (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

雪
xuě · snow; wipe away shame, avenge
泥
ní · mud, mire; earth, clay; plaster
鴻
Look up this written character
爪
zhǎo · claw, nail, talon; animal feet
鸿
hóng · species of wild swan; vast
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–2–2–3 · xue3 ni2 hong2 zhao3

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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.

雪泥鴻爪 · find source passages ↗ · 雪泥鸿爪 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

syut3 nai4 hung4 zaau2

Cantonese word readings for 雪泥鴻爪. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

雪泥鴻爪 · xue3 ni2 hong2 zhao3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 116,742
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record雪泥鴻爪 雪泥鸿爪 [xue3 ni2 hong2 zhao3] /a goose's footprint in the snow/vestiges of the past (idiom)/the fleeting nature of human life (idiom)/