思绪万千

思緒萬千
sīxù-wànqiān
idiom #42,142

Meanings

  1. 1 a thousand thoughts running through one's mind
  2. 2 lost in countless thoughts
  3. 3 deeply pensive

Examples

HSK 3
Kàn zhe zhè zhāng lǎo zhàopiàn, tā sīxù-wànqiān.
Looking at this old photo she was lost in countless thoughts.
HSK 7-9
Yèshēn-rénjìng, tā sīxù-wànqiān, nányǐ rùmián.
In the deep quiet of night his thoughts raced, and sleep wouldn't come.

Tips

history
思绪 = thought-strands; 万千 = vast multitude. 'Thought-strands by the ten-thousand-thousand' - your mind is a tangled skein you can't put down. The set phrase has no single classical source but appears throughout late-imperial vernacular fiction as a stock description of pensive, sleepless characters.

Stroke Order

wàn
qiān