Dictionary › 盘根错节

盘根错节

pán gēn cuò jié

4-character word Traditional 盤根錯節

What 盘根错节 means

1. twisted roots and intertwined joints (idiom); complicated and very tricky
2. knotty and deeply-rooted difficulties

The characters in 盘根错节

• 盘pántray; plate; dish; (finance) (bound form) market prices; (computing; bound form) disk
• 根gēnroot; basis; classifier for long slender objects, e.g. cigarettes, guitar strings
• 错cuòmistake; wrong; bad
• 节jiéjoint; node; (bound form) section; segment; solar term…

Sounds the same

Read pán gēn cuò jié, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 蟠根错节variant of 盘根错节