默默无闻 (mò mò wú wén)

Character breakdown

• 默 (mò) · 16 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 黑 represents the sound and 犬 represents the meaning.

• 默 (mò) · 16 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 黑 represents the sound and 犬 represents the meaning.

• 无 (mó) · 4 strokes

  Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current form is a phonetic loan. The simplified character 无 was…

• 闻 (Wén) · 9 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 耳 represents the meaning and 门 represents the sound. Simplified form of 聞.

Usage

他在平凡的岗位上默默无闻地奉献。

obscure and unknown (idiom); an outsider without any reputation; a nobody; an unknown quantity

tā zài píng fán de gǎng wèi shàng mò mò wú wén dì fèng xiàn 。