800+ everyday chengyu — pinyin, origin, usage.
- Runs locally
- Category Text
- Best for Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.
What this tool does
Look up Chinese four-character idioms (成语 chéngyǔ) instantly in your browser — no API call, no signup, no waiting. The built-in dictionary covers 800+ idioms cross-verified against the 商务印书馆《现代汉语词典》 7th edition, the Ministry of Education 义务教育语文课程标准 recommended chengyu appendix, the 5-year high-frequency 高考真题 chengyu set, and the 国考/省考行测 言语理解 common-idiom bank. Spans three difficulty tiers: Level 1 (elementary classics like 一举两得, 画蛇添足), Level 2 (middle/high-school staples like 卧薪尝胆, 鞠躬尽瘁), and Level 3 (literary / civil-service like 筚路蓝缕, 沆瀣一气). Each entry ships with the idiom text, full pinyin with tone marks, plain-Chinese meaning + figurative extension, classical source cited to chapter (e.g. 《史记·项羽本纪》《左传·宣公十二年》), modern example sentence that actually reflects current Chinese, and 2-3 synonyms / 1-2 antonyms. Search by hanzi substring (输 "马" to surface 马到成功, 老马识途, 千军万马), by pinyin first-letter initials (type "yjld" → 一举两得), or by keyword inside the meaning. Hit "Inspire me" for a random pick when you're drafting an essay. 100% client-side — every lookup runs locally. Built for students cramming for 中考/高考, teachers preparing worksheets, 公考 candidates drilling 言语理解, and writers hunting for the perfect chengyu.
Tool details
- Input
- Text
- The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
- Output
- Live result
- The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
- Privacy
- Browser-side processing
- The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
- Save / share
- No account required
- Open the page and use it; whether results survive refresh depends on the tool.
- Performance budget
- Initial JS <= 60 KB
- No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
- Best fit
- Text · Student
- Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.
How to use
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1. Input
Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.
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2. Process
Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.
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3. Copy / Download
Copy the result or download to disk in one click.
How Chinese Idiom Search fits into your work
Use it to clean, compare, reshape, or extract plain text before it goes into a document, CMS, spreadsheet, or prompt.
Text jobs
- Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.
- Making text easier to compare, paste, publish, or feed into another tool.
- Working with content locally when the text is private or unfinished.
Text checks
- Scan for unintended whitespace, duplicate lines, and lost punctuation.
- For long text, test the first few lines before applying the whole change.
- Copy the final output only after checking the preview.
Good next steps
These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.
- 1 Chinese Poetry Search Chinese classical poetry — 300+ hand-annotated Tang/Song/Yuan canon (唐诗宋词元曲) plus 80,000+ searchable Tang/Song/Shijing/Chuci poems on demand. Open
- 2 Chinese Pinyin Converter Chinese characters to pinyin — with tone marks or numbers, supports simplified and traditional. Open
- 3 Traditional ⇄ Simplified Chinese Converter Traditional ⇄ Simplified Chinese — fast, character-level, no API. Open
Real-world use cases
Verifying a chengyu before it goes into a high-school essay
A student drafting a 800-word 议论文 wants to use 筚路蓝缕 but isn't sure it fits "starting a business from nothing". Typing the four characters surfaces the meaning, the source (《左传·宣公十二年》), and a modern example sentence. They confirm it means "enduring hardship to pioneer", not just "being poor", and swap their weaker phrase for a precise one that a grader will actually reward.
A teacher building a 20-item chengyu worksheet in ten minutes
A middle-school 语文 teacher needs a quiz on Level 2 idioms. They search the meaning keyword "决心" to pull 卧薪尝胆, 破釜沉舟, 背水一战, then copy each idiom's pinyin and source into a handout. Because the tool runs locally, they paste 20 entries straight into Word without re-typing tone marks, and every citation is already accurate to the chapter.
A 公考 candidate drilling 言语理解 near-synonym traps
A 省考 applicant keeps missing 辨析 questions that pit 沆瀣一气 against 鞭辟入里. Searching each one shows the figurative meaning plus 2-3 synonyms and 1-2 antonyms side by side, so they finally see that one is derogatory (colluding for evil) and the other is praise (incisive analysis). Ten minutes of lookups fixes a mistake they'd repeated across three mock exams.
Recalling a half-remembered idiom by its pinyin rhythm
A writer remembers a chengyu sounded like "yi-ju-liang-de" but can't place the characters. Typing the initials "yjld" into the pinyin box returns 一举两得 instantly. They also try the hanzi search "马" when they want a horse-themed idiom and get 马到成功, 老马识途, 千军万马 to pick from, no scrolling through an alphabetical list.
Common pitfalls
Assuming any four-character phrase is a chengyu — 不明觉厉 and 今天天气 aren't; this dictionary only ships verified idioms with a documented classical source, so if a phrase isn't here, it likely isn't a real chengyu.
Trusting an LLM's "chengyu" without checking — models invent plausible fakes like 风花残月 (the real one is 风花雪月); paste the four characters into the search box first, and if it returns nothing, don't use it in graded work.
Reading 一 and 不 with their dictionary base tone — sandhi shifts them in speech (一致 is yízhì, not yīzhì); use the tone shown here, because that's exactly what a 普通话 grader checks.
Privacy
Every lookup runs entirely in your browser against a bundled dictionary — no idiom you search, and no text you paste, is ever sent to a server. The tool makes zero API calls. Your current search term is kept in the page URL so you can bookmark or share a result link (e.g. a link straight to 守株待兔), which means avoid pasting anything private into the box if you'd rather it not appear in a shared URL.
FAQ
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