Word.ws English Dictionary

xiehouyu

/ʃjɛ.hoʊ.(j)u/

xiehouyu noun: a kind of Chinese proverb consisting of two elements: the former segment presents a novel scenario while the latter provides the rationale thereof. One would often only state the first part, expecting the listener to know the second. Compare English "a stitch in time (saves nine)" or "a bird in the hand (is worth two in the bush)".

Noun

xiehouyu (plural xiehouyu)

  1. A kind of Chinese proverb consisting of two elements: the former segment presents a novel scenario while the latter provides the rationale thereof. One would often only state the first part, expecting the listener to know the second. Compare English "a stitch in time (saves nine)" or "a bird in the hand (is worth two in the bush)".
    • All that is necessary for a successful hsieh hou yü is that the characters of which it is composed should have a well known, invariable order. This being presupposed, mere arbitrary sounds in which the characters have no meaning at all, are quite as good as any others. Thus the sounds, chʽih pu...[1914, Arthur H. Smith, “Puns and Other Linguistic Diversions.”, in Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese, New and Revised edition, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, →OCLC, pages...

Forms of xiehouyu

pluralxiehouyu

Origin of xiehouyu

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 歇後語 /歇后语 (xiēhòuyǔ).

Questions about xiehouyu

What does xiehouyu mean?
Xiehouyu means a kind of Chinese proverb consisting of two elements: the former segment presents a novel scenario while the latter provides the rationale thereof. One would often only state the first part, expecting the listener to know the second. Compare English "a stitch in time (saves nine)" or "a bird in the hand (is worth two in the bush)".
What part of speech is xiehouyu?
Xiehouyu is a noun.
How do you pronounce xiehouyu?
Xiehouyu is pronounced /ʃjɛ.hoʊ.(j)u/.
What is the plural of xiehouyu?
The plural of xiehouyu is xiehouyu.

Words near xiehouyu in the dictionary

  1. Xichuan
  2. Xico
  3. Xiden
  4. Xie
  5. xiebaisaponin
  6. xiehouyu
  7. Xies
  8. xiexie
  9. xiezhi
  10. xiezhis
  11. Xifeng

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: xiehouyu (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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