茅塞顿开 — Chinese idiom
茅塞顿开
máo sè dùn kāi
Traditional: 茅塞頓開
Meaning
- murky darkness suddenly opens ; a sudden flash of insight and all is clear
Character by character
- 茅máorushes, reeds, grass; surname
- 塞sèto stop up, to seal, to cork, to block; pass, fron
- 顿dùnto pause; to bow; to arrange
- 开kāito open; to start, to initiate, to begin
Idioms sharing a character
- 三顾茅庐 sān gù máo lú
- 初出茅庐 chū chū máo lú
- 土阶茅屋 tǔ jiē máo wū
- 土阶茅茨 tǔ jiē máo cí
- 拔茅连茹 bá máo lián rú
- 塞翁失马 sài wēng shī mǎ
- 敷衍塞责 fū yǎn sè zé
- 闭门塞窦 bì mén sè dòu
- 捶胸顿足 chuí xiōng dùn zú
- 信口开河 xìn kǒu kāi hé
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.