wú fēng bù qǐ làngdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
lit. without wind there cannot be waves (idiom) / there must be a reason / no smoke without fire
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-3a7cb755054e9d3b. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

無風不起浪 无风不起浪 [wu2 feng1 bu4 qi3 lang4] /lit. without wind there cannot be waves (idiom); there must be a reason/no smoke without fire/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 無風不起浪

  • 无
    mó

    used in 南無|南无[nā mó]

    wú

    not to have / no / none / not / to lack / un- / -less

  • 风
    fēng

    wind / news / style / custom / manner / CL:陣|阵[zhèn],絲|丝[sī]

  • 不
    bù

    no / not so / (bound form) not / un-

  • 起
    qǐ

    to rise / to raise / to get up / to set out / to start / to appear / to launch / to initiate (action) / to draft / to establish / to get (from a depot or counter) / verb suffix, to start / starting from (a time, place, price etc) / classifier for occurrences or unpredictable events: case, instance / classifier for groups: batch, group

  • 浪
    làng

    wave / breaker / unrestrained / dissipated / to stroll / to ramble

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.