(idiom) a clever person may become the victim of his own ingenuity; cleverness may overreach itself; too smart for one's own good
trad. 聰明反被聰明誤
Also written 聰明反被聰明誤【cōng míng fǎn bèi cōng míng wù】
Characters in this word
5聪
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
(literary) acute (of hearing), (bound form) clever; intelligent; sharp
- Pinyin
- cōng
- Traditional
- 聰
- Strokes
- 15
明
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), surname Ming, Ming (c. 2000 BC), fourth of the legendary Flame Emperors, 炎帝[Yan2 di4] descended from Shennong 神農|神农[Shen2 nong2] Farmer God
- Pinyin
- Míng
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 4563 of 2500
反
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
contrary, in reverse, inside out or upside down, to reverse, to return, to oppose, opposite, against, anti-, to rebel, to use analogy, instead, abbr. for 反切[fan3 qie4] phonetic system
- Pinyin
- fǎn
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 2794 of 2500
被
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
quilt, to cover (with), (literary) to suffer (a misfortune), used to indicate passive voice (placed before the doer of the action like "by" in English passive-voice sentences, or, if the doer is not mentioned, before the verb), (since c. 2009) (sarcastic or jocular) used to indicate that the following word should be regarded as being in air quotes (as in 被旅遊|被旅游[bei4 lu : 3 you2] to "go on a trip")
- Pinyin
- bèi
- Strokes
- 10
- Frequency
- 63 of 2500
误
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
mistake, error, to miss, to harm, to delay, to neglect, mistakenly
- Pinyin
- wù
- Traditional
- 誤
- Strokes
- 9
- Frequency
- 25626 of 2500