"目不識丁" meaning in Chinese

See 目不識丁 in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

IPA: /mu⁵¹⁻⁵³ pu⁵¹ ʂʐ̩³⁵ tiŋ⁵⁵/ [Mandarin, Standard-Chinese, Mainland-China, Sinological-IPA], /mu⁵¹ pu⁵¹⁻³⁵ ʂʐ̩⁵¹ tiŋ⁵⁵/ [Mandarin, Standard-Chinese, Taiwan, Sinological-IPA], /mʊk̚² pɐt̚⁵ sɪk̚⁵ tɪŋ⁵⁵/ [Cantonese, Guangzhou, Sinological-IPA] Forms: 目不识丁 [Simplified-Chinese]
Etymology: According to the Old Book of Tang, the Tang-dynasty official Zhang Hongjing once scornfully said to his soldiers Etymology templates: {{lang|zh|丁}} 丁 Head templates: {{head|zh|idiom}} 目不識丁
  1. (derogatory) to not even know the most basic characters; to be densely illiterate Wikipedia link: Old Book of Tang, Tang dynasty, Zhang Hongjing Tags: derogatory, idiomatic
{
  "etymology_examples": [
    {
      "bold_english_offsets": [
        [
          147,
          150
        ],
        [
          162,
          180
        ]
      ],
      "bold_roman_offsets": [
        [
          59,
          61
        ],
        [
          64,
          67
        ],
        [
          71,
          75
        ]
      ],
      "bold_text_offsets": [
        [
          18,
          19
        ],
        [
          20,
          21
        ],
        [
          22,
          23
        ]
      ],
      "english": "“ […] Now that the world is in peace, although you all are able to draw a bow that takes two dan [a unit of measure] of force to be drawn, that is not as good as being able to read the simplest characters like 丁.”",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Literary Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " The Old Book of Tang, 945 CE",
      "roman": "“...... Jīn tiānxià wúshì, rǔbèi wǎn dé liǎng dàn lì gōng, bùrú shí yī dīng zì.”",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin",
        "Traditional-Chinese"
      ],
      "text": "「……今天下無事,汝輩挽得兩石力弓,不如識一丁字。」",
      "type": "quote"
    },
    {
      "bold_english_offsets": [
        [
          147,
          150
        ],
        [
          162,
          180
        ]
      ],
      "bold_roman_offsets": [
        [
          59,
          61
        ],
        [
          64,
          67
        ],
        [
          71,
          75
        ]
      ],
      "bold_text_offsets": [
        [
          18,
          19
        ],
        [
          20,
          21
        ],
        [
          22,
          23
        ]
      ],
      "english": "“ […] Now that the world is in peace, although you all are able to draw a bow that takes two dan [a unit of measure] of force to be drawn, that is not as good as being able to read the simplest characters like 丁.”",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Literary Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " The Old Book of Tang, 945 CE",
      "roman": "“...... Jīn tiānxià wúshì, rǔbèi wǎn dé liǎng dàn lì gōng, bùrú shí yī dīng zì.”",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin",
        "Simplified-Chinese"
      ],
      "text": "「……今天下无事,汝辈挽得两石力弓,不如识一丁字。」",
      "type": "quote"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "丁"
      },
      "expansion": "丁",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "According to the Old Book of Tang, the Tang-dynasty official Zhang Hongjing once scornfully said to his soldiers",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "目不识丁",
      "tags": [
        "Simplified-Chinese"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "idiom"
      },
      "expansion": "目不識丁",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Chinese",
  "lang_code": "zh",
  "literal_meaning": "One's eyes don't know the character 丁.",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Cantonese chengyu",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Chinese chengyu",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Chinese entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin chengyu",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with multiple pronunciations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin words containing 不 undergoing tone sandhi",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to not even know the most basic characters; to be densely illiterate"
      ],
      "id": "en-目不識丁-zh-phrase-6F1QmD57",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "even",
          "even"
        ],
        [
          "know",
          "know"
        ],
        [
          "most",
          "most"
        ],
        [
          "basic",
          "basic"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "densely",
          "densely"
        ],
        [
          "illiterate",
          "illiterate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) to not even know the most basic characters; to be densely illiterate"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Old Book of Tang",
        "Tang dynasty",
        "Zhang Hongjing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshídīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshìdīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˊ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˋ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muk⁶ bat¹ sik¹ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshídīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˊ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshíhding"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mu⁴-pu⁴-shih²-ting¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mù-bù-shŕ-dīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muhbushyrding"
    },
    {
      "roman": "mubušidin",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "мубушидин"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mu⁵¹⁻⁵³ pu⁵¹ ʂʐ̩³⁵ tiŋ⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshìdīng [Phonetic: mùbúshìdīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˋ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshìhding"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mu⁴-pu⁴-shih⁴-ting¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mù-bù-shr̀-dīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muhbushyhding"
    },
    {
      "roman": "mubušidin",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "мубушидин"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mu⁵¹ pu⁵¹⁻³⁵ ʂʐ̩⁵¹ tiŋ⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muk⁶ bat¹ sik¹ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muhk bāt sīk dīng"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Cantonese",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muk⁹ bat⁷ sik⁷ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Guangdong-Romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mug⁶ bed¹ xig¹ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mʊk̚² pɐt̚⁵ sɪk̚⁵ tɪŋ⁵⁵/",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "目不識丁"
}
{
  "etymology_examples": [
    {
      "bold_english_offsets": [
        [
          147,
          150
        ],
        [
          162,
          180
        ]
      ],
      "bold_roman_offsets": [
        [
          59,
          61
        ],
        [
          64,
          67
        ],
        [
          71,
          75
        ]
      ],
      "bold_text_offsets": [
        [
          18,
          19
        ],
        [
          20,
          21
        ],
        [
          22,
          23
        ]
      ],
      "english": "“ […] Now that the world is in peace, although you all are able to draw a bow that takes two dan [a unit of measure] of force to be drawn, that is not as good as being able to read the simplest characters like 丁.”",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Literary Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " The Old Book of Tang, 945 CE",
      "roman": "“...... Jīn tiānxià wúshì, rǔbèi wǎn dé liǎng dàn lì gōng, bùrú shí yī dīng zì.”",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin",
        "Traditional-Chinese"
      ],
      "text": "「……今天下無事,汝輩挽得兩石力弓,不如識一丁字。」",
      "type": "quote"
    },
    {
      "bold_english_offsets": [
        [
          147,
          150
        ],
        [
          162,
          180
        ]
      ],
      "bold_roman_offsets": [
        [
          59,
          61
        ],
        [
          64,
          67
        ],
        [
          71,
          75
        ]
      ],
      "bold_text_offsets": [
        [
          18,
          19
        ],
        [
          20,
          21
        ],
        [
          22,
          23
        ]
      ],
      "english": "“ […] Now that the world is in peace, although you all are able to draw a bow that takes two dan [a unit of measure] of force to be drawn, that is not as good as being able to read the simplest characters like 丁.”",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Literary Chinese"
      ],
      "ref": " The Old Book of Tang, 945 CE",
      "roman": "“...... Jīn tiānxià wúshì, rǔbèi wǎn dé liǎng dàn lì gōng, bùrú shí yī dīng zì.”",
      "tags": [
        "Pinyin",
        "Simplified-Chinese"
      ],
      "text": "「……今天下无事,汝辈挽得两石力弓,不如识一丁字。」",
      "type": "quote"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "丁"
      },
      "expansion": "丁",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "According to the Old Book of Tang, the Tang-dynasty official Zhang Hongjing once scornfully said to his soldiers",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "目不识丁",
      "tags": [
        "Simplified-Chinese"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "zh",
        "2": "idiom"
      },
      "expansion": "目不識丁",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Chinese",
  "lang_code": "zh",
  "literal_meaning": "One's eyes don't know the character 丁.",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Cantonese chengyu",
        "Cantonese idioms",
        "Cantonese lemmas",
        "Chinese chengyu",
        "Chinese derogatory terms",
        "Chinese entries with incorrect language header",
        "Chinese idioms",
        "Chinese lemmas",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 丁",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 不",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 目",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 識",
        "Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Mandarin chengyu",
        "Mandarin idioms",
        "Mandarin lemmas",
        "Mandarin terms with multiple pronunciations",
        "Mandarin words containing 不 undergoing tone sandhi",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to not even know the most basic characters; to be densely illiterate"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "even",
          "even"
        ],
        [
          "know",
          "know"
        ],
        [
          "most",
          "most"
        ],
        [
          "basic",
          "basic"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "densely",
          "densely"
        ],
        [
          "illiterate",
          "illiterate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(derogatory) to not even know the most basic characters; to be densely illiterate"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Old Book of Tang",
        "Tang dynasty",
        "Zhang Hongjing"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshídīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshìdīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˊ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˋ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muk⁶ bat¹ sik¹ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshídīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˊ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshíhding"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mu⁴-pu⁴-shih²-ting¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mù-bù-shŕ-dīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muhbushyrding"
    },
    {
      "roman": "mubušidin",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "мубушидин"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mu⁵¹⁻⁵³ pu⁵¹ ʂʐ̩³⁵ tiŋ⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Mainland-China",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshìdīng [Phonetic: mùbúshìdīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄇㄨˋ ㄅㄨˋ ㄕˋ ㄉㄧㄥ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mùbùshìhding"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mu⁴-pu⁴-shih⁴-ting¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mù-bù-shr̀-dīng"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muhbushyhding"
    },
    {
      "roman": "mubušidin",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "мубушидин"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mu⁵¹ pu⁵¹⁻³⁵ ʂʐ̩⁵¹ tiŋ⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Taiwan",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muk⁶ bat¹ sik¹ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muhk bāt sīk dīng"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Cantonese",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "muk⁹ bat⁷ sik⁷ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Guangdong-Romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "mug⁶ bed¹ xig¹ ding¹"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mʊk̚² pɐt̚⁵ sɪk̚⁵ tɪŋ⁵⁵/",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Standard-Cantonese",
        "Hong Kong"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangzhou",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "目不識丁"
}

Download raw JSONL data for 目不識丁 meaning in Chinese (5.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Chinese dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (fb173d2 and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.