出其不意，攻其不备

Traditional: 出其不意，攻其不備

chū qí bù yì , gōng qí bù bèi

Dictionary entry

to catch an enemy off guard with a surprise attack (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法[Sun1 zi3 Bing1 fa3])

What does 出其不意，攻其不备 mean?

出其不意，攻其不备 (chū qí bù yì , gōng qí bù bèi) has the following dictionary meaning.

1to catch an enemy off guard with a surprise attack (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法[Sun1 zi3 Bing1 fa3])

Character breakdown

Open each character to see its own meanings and vocabulary links.

出chūto go out; to come out · to arise; to occur 其qíhis · her 不bùno; not so · (bound form) not; un-意yì(bound form) idea; thought; meaning; sense · (bound form) intention; feeling; inclination; state of mind 攻gōngto attack · to accuse 备bèivariant of 備|备[bei4]

Reviewed examples

No reviewed example dialogues yet. This page only shows verified dictionary data until a context lesson is published.

How to pronounce 出其不意，攻其不备

出其不意，攻其不备

chū qí bù yì , gōng qí bù bèi

Tap to hear Standard Mandarin.

Base dictionary data: CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA 4.0.