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

Yèshēnrénjìng, tā sīxùwànqiān, nányǐ rùmián.
In the deep quiet of night his thoughts raced, and sleep wouldn't come.
Kàn zhe zhè zhāng lǎo zhàopiàn, tā sīxùwànqiān.
Looking at this old photo she was lost in countless thoughts.

Tips

history
Per 《新华成语词典》: 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