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鴉雀無聲

简鸦雀无声 · 繁鴉雀無聲

Mandarin · pinyin yā què wú shēng

lit. crow and peacock make no sound
absolute silence (idiom); not a single voice can be heard
absolute silence

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Characters in this entry

鴉: Look up this written character
雀: què · sparrow
無: Look up this written character
聲: shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music
鸦: yā · crow; Corvus species (various)
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
声: shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–2–1 · ya1 que4 wu2 sheng1

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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.

鴉雀無聲 · find source passages ↗ · 鸦雀无声 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

aa1 zoek3 mou4 sing1

Cantonese word readings for 鴉雀無聲. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) dead silent; utterly quiet

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

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