Dictionary › 名落孙山

名落孙山

míng luò Sūn Shān

4-character word Traditional 名落孫山

What 名落孙山 means

1. lit. to fall behind Sun Shan {孙山|Sūn Shān} (who came last in the imperial examination) (idiom)
2. fig. to fail an exam
3. to fall behind (in a competition)

The characters in 名落孙山

• 名míngname; noun (part of speech); place (e.g. among winners)
• 落luòto fall or drop; (of the sun) to set; (of a tide) to go out
• 孙sūngrandson; descendant
• 山shānmountain; hill; (colloquial) small bundle of straw for silkworms to spin cocoons on