名落孙山

Traditional: 名落孫山
míng luò Sūn Shān
Dictionary entry
lit. to fall behind Sun Shan 孫山|孙山[Sun1 Shan1] (who came last in the imperial examination) (idiom)

What does 名落孙山 mean?

名落孙山 (míng luò Sūn Shān) has the following dictionary meaning.

1lit. to fall behind Sun Shan 孫山|孙山[Sun1 Shan1] (who came last in the imperial examination) (idiom)
2fig. to fail an exam
3to fall behind (in a competition)

Character breakdown

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How to pronounce 名落孙山

名落孙山
míng luò Sūn Shān
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Base dictionary data: CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA 4.0.