Chinese word dictionary

无厘头

wú lí tóu · silly talk or "mo lei tau" (Cantonese), genre of humor emerging from Hong Kong late in the 20th century

Practice word

Word information

Simplified无厘头

Traditional無厘頭

Pinyinwú lí tóu

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.

无wú

no, not; lacking, -less

厘lí

one thousandth

头tóu

head; chief, boss; first, top

How to learn 无厘头

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.

hair (on the head)

to nod

steamed bun

to raise one's head; to look up; (fig.) to begin to emerge; to show signs of growth; (commerce) account name, or space for writing the name on checks, bills etc

头痛tóutòng

to have a headache

无法wúfǎ

unable to; incapable of