Word.ws English Dictionary

may you live in interesting times

may you live in interesting times phrase: a sardonic curse disguised as well-wishing, where interesting times refers to trouble.

Phrase

may you live in interesting times

  1. A sardonic curse disguised as well-wishing, where interesting times refers to trouble.

Origin of may you live in interesting times

Popularly attributed to Chinese, but this is apocryphal; the true origin is unclear. Its closest Chinese equivalent is 寧為太平犬，不做亂世人 ("better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos"). Its earliest known use is in 1936 by Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, British ambassador to China, who purported hearing the phrase. See May you live in interesting times § Origins on Wikipedia.

Questions about may you live in interesting times

What does may you live in interesting times mean?
May you live in interesting times means a sardonic curse disguised as well-wishing, where interesting times refers to trouble.
What part of speech is may you live in interesting times?
May you live in interesting times is a phrase.

Words near may you live in interesting times in the dictionary

  1. May Week
  2. May Weeks
  3. may well
  4. May wine
  5. May wines
  6. may you live in interesting times
  7. may'st
  8. may't
  9. may've
  10. May-bean
  11. May-beans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: may you live in interesting times (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “may you live in interesting times.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/may_you_live_in_interesting_times. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.