杞人忧天 / 杞人憂天

qǐ​rén​yōu​tiān

groundless fears

(idiom) to entertain unnecessary or imaginary worries; literally "the man of [[杞|杞|qi3]] who feared the sky would fall"

杞 (literal) → 杞 · qǐ · Qi State 人 (literal) → 人 · rén · person 忧 (literal) → 忧/憂 · yōu · to worry 天 (literal) → 天 · tiān · sky

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

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM