Chinese Word Detail

Remove Adverts
What is this page showing me?

似是而非

ci5 si6 ji4 fei1

si4 shi4 er2 fei1

(stock phrase) looks right, but is actually not

Level: 3 Google Frequency: 532,000

This term is used in both Cantonese and Mandarin/Standard written Chinese.

似是而非

This word was added by tym on 8th Nov 2004 and last edited on 30th Oct 2008

Sponsors: One-on-One Online Chinese Tutoring | Classic Games | Learn Chinese
Learn Spanish | Satellite TV offers | Living in China

似 ci5 si4 shi4 - resemble; like; similar to
是 si6 shi4 - is
而 ji4 er2 neng2 - but; and, also; otherwise
非 fei1 fai1 fei2 fei1 fei3 fei4 - not; negative; wrong

Forum Code to link to this word:
[big][url=http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/4331/]似是而非[/url][/big]
HTML Code to link to this word:
<a href="http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/4331/" class="chinesemed" target="_blank">似是而非</a>
Decimal representation of this word: 似是而非

Search CantoDict (safe search is on)

Please note, CantoDict currently supports searching for Simplified Chinese, but results will be returned in Traditional Chinese.

Hide Written and Spoken Hide Written 國 Hide Spoken粵

This page shows, from top to bottom:

a large version of the word in a traditional script font which you may need to install

: the Cantonese pronunciation of the word in jyutping.

: the Mandarin pronunciation of the word in pinyin (only if present).

the meaning of the word, typed in by our volunteer editors
guidelines on whether the word can only be used in Spoken Cantonese etc (if nothing is present the word may be used in both Cantonese and Mandarin)
our arbitrarily assigned difficulty level
a smaller version of the character in a computerised, printed font
a list of each of the characters for the word, showing jyutping and meaning (if our dictionary contains that character)

this thread