Xiehouyu (歇後語) dictionary: Chinese two-part sayings with the setup, a revealable punchline, the meaning and where each one is attested. Search in Simplified, Traditional or English. Browser-only, no network.
Xiehouyu Dictionary (歇後語)
How to use
Search by keyword
Type any keyword: part of the setup (前段, e.g. 黄鼠狼), the punchline (後段, e.g. 各显神通) or a word from the meaning, in Simplified, Traditional or English. A pun can be found by either reading: 照舅 and 照旧 both find the nephew's lantern.
Browse all entries
With the search box empty, the list shows every saying. It shows only the setups, so you can guess first; tick "Show punchlines and meanings in the list" to see them all at once.
Click to read and reveal
Click any entry and the card above shows its setup only. Guess the answer, press "Reveal punchline", then read the meaning, the English gloss, whether it works by sound or by metaphor, and where it is attested.
Saying of the day
The page opens on today's saying, chosen from the date in Singapore time and fixed for the whole day. After browsing, press "Back to today's saying" to return to it.
Xiehouyu (歇後語): Say Half, Leave Half
A xiehouyu (歇後語, xiē-hòu-yǔ) is a Chinese saying built from two parts: a setup (前段) that paints a picture, rather like the front of a riddle, and a punchline (後段) that supplies the answer. The name says it: 歇後 means the latter half "rests", and a speaker can say only the first part and leave the listener to supply the second. Say "八仙過海" (the Eight Immortals cross the sea) and a Chinese listener fills in "各顯神通" (each shows their own magic); say "姜太公釣魚" (Jiang Taigong goes fishing) and they answer "願者上鉤" (only the willing take the hook). Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary defines the form as a riddle-like expression particular to Chinese, whose first half leads in and whose second half carries the point.
The sound puns are famous, and a minority
A xiehouyu links its halves in one of three ways. Metaphor (喻意): the picture stands for the point, stated plainly, as in "泥菩薩過江——自身難保" (a clay Buddha crossing the river: it can't save itself). Double meaning (語義雙關): a word of the punchline fits the picture literally and the point figuratively, as in "擀麵杖吹火——一竅不通" (blowing on a fire through a rolling pin: 竅 is both the hole a rolling pin lacks and the insight someone lacks). Sound pun (諧音): the punchline borrows a same- or similar-sounding word, as in "外甥打燈籠——照舅（舊）" (a nephew with a lantern lights his uncle, 舅, which sounds like 舊, "as before") or "孔夫子搬家——淨是書（輸）" (Confucius moves house: nothing but books, 書, which sounds like 輸, "losing"). Sound puns are the famous kind but the minority: among the headwords the Ministry of Education dictionary labels 歇後語, about one in nine has a sound pun explained in its definition. Every entry here is marked with one of the three kinds; the classification is our own.
A sound pun only works in the speech whose sounds it was built on. Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK, explaining 外甥打燈籠, notes that the saying means "as before" because 舅 and 舊 sound alike in Putonghua (standard Mandarin). In Cantonese they do not: 舅 is kau5 and 舊 is gau6 in the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Cantonese pronunciation database.
"Speak half a sentence, and the whole meaning lands." A xiehouyu uses the setup's image to spark the knowing smile of the punchline.
How to read the brackets
This is our own convention: after the dash comes the word the picture literally says, and the bracket holds the word the saying means. So 照舅（舊） reads "lights the uncle (舅), meaning as before (舊)". Nobody else agrees on a rule. The Ministry of Education dictionary uses no brackets and no fixed direction: it writes 照舅 but 無法無天, and explains in its definition which character stands for which. Printed collections bracket both ways, so go by the meaning; here, a search by either reading finds the saying.
Idioms that are dressed up as xiehouyu
Popular "complete xiehouyu" lists often split an idiom or a proverb in two and attach a definition, as in "過河拆橋——忘恩負義" (burning the bridge after crossing: ingratitude). The Ministry of Education's idiom dictionary lists 過河拆橋 and 畫蛇添足 as idioms (成語), and its main dictionary labels 麻雀雖小，五臟俱全 a proverb (諺語); none of them is a xiehouyu, and none is in this dictionary.
Sources
Every entry appears in at least one of these, and says which once revealed: the entries labelled 歇後語 in Taiwan's Ministry of Education Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (重編國語辭典修訂本), each linked by its entry ID, or the public xiehouyu compilation in pwxcoo/chinese-xinhua (xiehouyu.json, MIT licence; a scraped collection of unknown provenance, not the Xinhua Dictionary). The meanings and English glosses are our own wording; no dictionary definition is reproduced. Cantonese readings are from the CUHK Cantonese pronunciation database; the RTHK explanation is from its archived page of May 2019. All data is embedded in the page and runs in your browser: no network, no model calls, no stored input.
You say the first half and rest the second
歇後語 literally means "a saying whose latter half rests": a speaker can say the first part alone and leave the listener to fill in the rest.
Three ways to link the halves: metaphor (a clay Buddha crossing the river: it can't save itself), double meaning (a rolling pin blown like a fire tube: 竅 is both the hole and the insight it lacks), and sound pun (the nephew's lantern lights the uncle, 舅, which in Putonghua sounds like 舊, "as before").
Pun sayings hinge on pronunciation and rarely survive translation: "Confucius moves house: nothing but books (書)" works only because 書 sounds like 輸 (to lose).
Many draw on the Three Kingdoms. The Ministry of Education dictionary traces "Liu Bei borrows Jingzhou: never returns it" to the history Records of the Three Kingdoms, and "Zhuge Liang borrows the east wind: a masterly plan" to chapter 49 of the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Animals recur with fixed characters: the weasel is always sly ("New-Year call on the chicken: up to no good"), the rat always "crosses the street and everyone shouts to kill it".
In writing the two parts are joined by a dash; in speech, a brief pause does the "resting" before the punchline.
Taiwan's Ministry of Education Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary labels 305 headwords 歇後語 (searched October 2026; variant forms of one saying count separately), and nearly half quote a classic work such as Dream of the Red Chamber or The Scholars as evidence of use.
Xiehouyu belong to the family of set expressions alongside chengyu (idioms) and proverbs; what marks them out is that the second half is often left unsaid.
Some read two ways at once: "a monk under an umbrella: 無髮（法）無天" is literally no hair and no sky, and by sound "no law, no heaven", lawless.
A pun can fail in another dialect: 舅 and 舊 sound alike in Mandarin, but in Cantonese 舅 is kau5 and 舊 is gau6, so the nephew's lantern is not a pun in Cantonese.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A two-part Chinese saying: a vivid setup (the riddle) and a punchline (the solution). Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary describes it as a riddle-like expression particular to Chinese whose second half carries the point. The name means "the latter half rests": a speaker can say the setup alone and let the listener supply the rest.
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A chengyu is usually a fixed four-character phrase, compact and literary. A xiehouyu is a two-part colloquial saying, a setup and then a revealed answer. Popular lists often split an idiom in two and call it a xiehouyu, as in 過河拆橋——忘恩負義, but the Ministry of Education's idiom dictionary lists 過河拆橋 as an idiom, and this dictionary leaves such entries out.
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No. Of the 305 headwords the Ministry of Education dictionary labels 歇後語, about one in nine has a sound pun explained in its definition. Many more turn on a word with two senses, such as the 竅 (hole, insight) of 擀麵杖吹火——一竅不通; count those as puns and the share is far higher. This dictionary marks sound puns, double meanings and metaphors separately, and the note at the top of the tool gives the exact count of each.
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Not always: a sound pun depends on the speech it was made in. Hong Kong broadcaster RTHK, explaining 外甥打燈籠, notes it works because 舅 and 舊 sound alike in Putonghua; in Cantonese 舅 is kau5 and 舊 is gau6. It can go the other way too. The 髮 and 法 of the monk's umbrella differ in tone in mainland Putonghua (fà, fǎ), but Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary reads 髮 as fǎ, the same as 法, and in Cantonese both are faat3.
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It is this dictionary's own convention: first the word the picture literally says, then, in brackets, the word the saying means. So 外甥打燈籠——照舅（舊）: the nephew lights his uncle (舅), which sounds like 舊, "as before". There is no common rule elsewhere: the Ministry of Education dictionary uses no brackets and no fixed direction, writing 照舅 but 無法無天, and printed collections bracket both ways. Go by the meaning; here you can search by either reading.
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The dictionary is written in Simplified. The Taiwan Traditional text was converted with OpenCC, checked by hand and embedded in the page; automatic conversion turns 无发无天 into 無發無天, for example, and here it reads 無髮無天. Nothing is converted in your browser, and a search in Simplified, Taiwan Traditional or Hong Kong Traditional finds the same entry.
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No. It computes a fixed index from the date in Singapore time, so the same day always shows the same saying and it changes at midnight. It is a deterministic pick: no random number and no network.
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The exact number is in the note at the top of the tool, computed from the data itself. Every saying appears either among the entries labelled 歇後語 in Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary or in a public xiehouyu compilation, and the revealed card says which, with a link to the Ministry entry. The meanings and English glosses are our own.
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No. All data is embedded in the page; search and browse run entirely in your browser with no server calls, and nothing you type is stored.
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Xiehouyu are folk speech, so wording varies and a saying may have several forms with slightly different punchlines. The Ministry of Education dictionary often records the alternatives itself: 十五個吊桶打水 ends either 七上八落 or 七上八下. This dictionary uses the form found in the Ministry dictionary or the compilation.
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