楚楚可怜 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• pitiable; sweet, innocent and vulnerable

Character by character

• 楚chǔclear, distinct; pain, suffering; surname
• 楚chǔclear, distinct; pain, suffering; surname
• 可kěmay, can, -able; possibly
• 怜liánto pity, to sympathize with

Idioms sharing a character

• 一清二楚 yī qīng èr chǔ
• 吴头楚尾 Wú tóu Chǔ wěi
• 四面楚歌 sì miàn Chǔ gē
• 朝秦暮楚 zhāo Qín mù Chǔ
• 一蹴可几 yī cù kě jī
• 不可一世 bù kě yī shì
• 不可胜言 bù kě shèng yán
• 不可告人 bù kě gào rén
• 不可思议 bù kě sī yì
• 不可抗拒 bù kě kàng jù

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.