"the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" meaning in English

See the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: Compare the Bible, Matthew 6:3: "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing
  1. Two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities. Translations (two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities): vasen käsi ei tiedä mitä oikea tekee (Finnish), nem tudja a bal kéz, mit csinál a jobb (Hungarian), niech lewa ręka nie wie, co czyni prawa (Polish), a mão esquerda não sabe o que faz a direita (Portuguese), la mano izquierda no sabe lo que hace la derecha (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-the_left_hand_doesn't_know_what_the_right_hand_is_doing-en-phrase-7T-juDm4 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing meaning in English (1.7kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Compare the Bible, Matthew 6:3: \"But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.\"",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_left_hand_doesn't_know_what_the_right_hand_is_doing-en-phrase-7T-juDm4",
      "links": [
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
          "word": "vasen käsi ei tiedä mitä oikea tekee"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
          "word": "nem tudja a bal kéz, mit csinál a jobb"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
          "word": "niech lewa ręka nie wie, co czyni prawa"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
          "word": "a mão esquerda não sabe o que faz a direita"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
          "word": "la mano izquierda no sabe lo que hace la derecha"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Compare the Bible, Matthew 6:3: \"But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.\"",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "organization",
          "organization"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
      "word": "vasen käsi ei tiedä mitä oikea tekee"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
      "word": "nem tudja a bal kéz, mit csinál a jobb"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
      "word": "niech lewa ręka nie wie, co czyni prawa"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
      "word": "a mão esquerda não sabe o que faz a direita"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "two parts of an organization are unaware of each other's activities",
      "word": "la mano izquierda no sabe lo que hace la derecha"
    }
  ],
  "word": "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.