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一门心思 (yī mén xīn sāi) — wholeheartedly, with single-minded focus

Definition

Chengyu meaning 'wholeheartedly, with all one's focus on one thing' — stronger than just 专心, implying single-minded devotion (often to a goal) rather than just concentrating.

idiom
wholeheartedlywith single-minded focus

Examples

  • 一门心思。
    Tā yī mén xīn sāi xiǎng kǎo shàng yì suǒ hǎo dà xué.
    He is wholeheartedly focused on getting into a good university.
  • ，一门心思。
    Bié dǎ rǎo tā, tā xiàn zài yī mén xīn sāi zài xiě xiǎo shuō.
    Don't disturb him — he's completely absorbed in writing his novel right now.
  • 一门心思，。
    Tā yī mén xīn sāi xiǎng xué huà huà, bié de shén me dōu bú zài hu.
    She is set on learning to paint and doesn't care about anything else.

Origin

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

一 is drawn as one horizontal stroke, marking the number one.

Open 一 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 門; 门 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 門 pictures a gate as two door shapes side by side; the simplified 门 is a later shorthand.

Open 门 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
囟
囟xìn思sī
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In 思, 心 (heart) points to thinking, while the top part is a changed form of 囟, which supplied the sound.

Open 思 →
Appears in
Idioms & Set Phrases

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