不识一丁 / 不識一丁

bù​shí​yī​dīng

completely illiterate

Describing a person who is totally illiterate or lacks even basic education, unable to recognize the simplest characters. Originally from the [[旧唐书|舊唐書|jiu4 tang2 shu1]], where it was noted that being able to pull a heavy bow is not as useful as recognizing the single character [[丁|丁|ding1]]

bú​shí​yì​dīng, bú​shí​yī​dīng, bù​shí​yì​dīng

不识 (literal) → 不识/不識 · bù​shí · to be ignorant of 一 (literal) → 一 · yī · one 丁 (literal) → 丁 · dīng · extremely small

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM