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刻舟求剑

kè zhōu qiú jiàn

HSK 3.0 level 7-9 4-character word Traditional 刻舟求劍

刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) means "lit. a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); fig. an action made pointless by changed". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was not on the old six-level HSK list.

What 刻舟求剑 means

1. lit. a notch on the side of a boat to locate a sword dropped overboard (idiom); fig. an action made pointless by changed circumstances

The characters in 刻舟求剑

• 刻kèquarter (hour); moment; to carve
• 舟zhōuboat
• 求qiúto seek; to look for; to request
• 剑jiàndouble-edged sword; classifier for blows of a sword

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read kè zhōu qiú jiàn correctly.
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