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杞人之忧

Qǐ rén zhī yōu

4-character word Traditional 杞人之憂

What 杞人之忧 means

1. (lit.) the fear held by a man of {杞|Qǐ} that the sky would fall (idiom)
2. (fig.) groundless fears

The characters in 杞人之忧

• 杞qǐChinese wolfberry shrub (Lycium chinense); willow
• 人rénperson; people
• 之zhī(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的; him; her
• 忧yōuto worry; to concern oneself with; worried

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read Qǐ rén zhī yōu correctly.
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