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Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 外强中干

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
外强中干 wài qiáng zhōng gān - strong in appearance but weak in reality (idiom)

List Ranking for: 外强中干

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2025) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
- - 50,075 66,745 48,445

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
外 wài- outside
- in addition
- foreign
- external
强 qiáng- surname Qiang
强 jiàng- stubborn
- unyielding
强 qiáng- strong
- powerful
- better
- slightly more than
- vigorous
- violent
- best in their category, e.g. see 百強|百强[bai3 qiang2]
强 qiǎng- to force
- to compel
- to strive
- to make an effort
强 jiàng- variant of 強|强[jiang4]
强 qiáng- variant of 強|强[qiang2]
强 qiǎng- variant of 強|强[qiang3]
中 zhōng- (bound form) China; Chinese
- surname Zhong
中 zhōng- within; among; in
- middle; center
- while (doing sth); during
- (dialect) OK; all right
中 zhòng- to hit (the mark)
- to be hit by
- to suffer
- to win (a prize, a lottery)
干 gān- surname Gan
干 gān- (bound form) to have to do with; to concern oneself with
- one of the ten heavenly stems 天干[tian gan1]
- (archaic) shield
干 gān- old variant of 乾|干[gan1]
干 gān- surname Gan
干 gān- dry
- dried food
- empty; hollow
- taken in to nominal kinship; adoptive; foster
- futile; in vain
- (dialect) rude; blunt
- (dialect) to cold-shoulder
干 gān- variant of 乾|干[gan1]
干 gàn- tree trunk
- main part of sth
- to manage
- to work
- to do
- capable
- cadre
- to kill (slang)
- to fuck (vulgar)
- (coll.) pissed off
- annoyed

Other Words Containing 外强中干

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2025) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
外强中干 - - 50,075 66,745 48,445