Chinese word dictionary

去芜存菁

qù wú cún jīng · lit. to get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers; to separate the wheat from the chaff (idiom)

Practice word

Word information

Simplified去芜存菁

Traditional去蕪存菁

Pinyinqù wú cún jīng

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

去qù

to go away, to leave, to depart

芜wú

weeds; overgrowth

存cún

to exist; to survive, to maintain; to keep, to store; to deposit

菁jīng

turnip; a flower of the leek family

How to learn 去芜存菁

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

去qù

to go; to go to (a place); (of a time etc) last; just passed; to send; to remove; to get rid of; to reduce; to be apart from in space or time; to die (euphemism); to play (a part); (when used either before or after a verb) to go in order to do sth; (after a verb of motion indicates movement away from the speaker); (used after certain verbs to indicate detachment or separation)

去年qùnián

last year

出去chūqù

to go out

过去guòqù

(in the) past; former; previous; to go over; to pass by

过去guò qù

(in the) past; former; previous; to go over; to pass by

回去huíqù

to return; to go back