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无聊 (wú liáo) — (of a person) bored; (of a thing) boring; senseless; uninteresting

Definition

无聊 describes both feeling bored (a person) and being boring (a thing). It is more common than 没意思, which sounds casual/colloquial, and is more everyday than 枯燥 (written, more emphatic 'dry and dull').

adjective
(of a person) bored(of a thing) boringsenselessuninteresting

Examples

  • ，无聊。
    Zhōu mò yí gè rén zài jiā, wǒ jué de hěn wú liáo.
    I feel very bored staying home alone on the weekend.
  • 无聊，。
    Zhè běn shū tài wú liáo le, wǒ kàn bú xià qù.
    This book is too boring; I can't keep reading it.
  • 无聊，。
    Zhè ge yóu xì hěn wú liáo, wǒ men huàn yí gè wán ba.
    This game is boring; let's play something else.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

无wúno/without
聊liáoreliance

The sense comes from 无 (no/without) plus 聊 (reliance), giving nothing to lean on.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

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
耳耳ěrear
Sound part声符shēngfú
卯
卯mǎo聊liáo
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

聊 shows 耳 (ear) beside 卯, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was tinnitus.

Open 聊 →
Appears in
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