<p>Actually, I can work this out myself.  It depends on the corpus, and what you consider is or isn't a chengyu.  For simplicity, I'll only search for 4-character chengyu.  Doing this search, we get a whole bunch of 4-character words like 社会主义 and 工作人员, which I leave off.  Below I list the 4-character phrases which I feel could be interpreted as a chengyu (and if you don't think it's a chengyu, just pretend it's not there).</p>
<p>I feel like the correct answer is among: (a) 不好意思, (b) 莫名其妙, (c) 好不容易, (d) 不知不觉, and (e) 有感而发.</p>
<h2><a href="http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/query-zh.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Leeds internet corpus</a></h2>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>chengyu</th>
<th>no. occurrences per 1mil hanzi</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>不好意思</td>
<td>36.67</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>莫名其妙</td>
<td>19.35</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>好不容易</td>
<td>18.75</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>不知不觉</td>
<td>18.23</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>各种各样</td>
<td>17.34</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>绝大多数</td>
<td>14.65</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>小心翼翼</td>
<td>14.60</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>不可思议</td>
<td>14.43</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>与此同时</td>
<td>13.58</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>哈哈大笑</td>
<td>11.03</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div><h2><a href="https://www.plecoforums.com/threads/word-frequency-list-based-on-a-15-billion-character-corpus-bcc-blcu-chinese-corpus.5859/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BLCU global corpus</a></h2>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>chengyu</th>
<th>count</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>有感而发</td>
<td>713476</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>与此同时</td>
<td>621536</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>不好意思</td>
<td>421657</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>绝大多数</td>
<td>402207</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>无论如何</td>
<td>232946</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>莫名其妙</td>
<td>230452</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>好不容易</td>
<td>226637</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>前所未有</td>
<td>224422</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>不可思议</td>
<td>223894</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>绝大部分</td>
<td>216299</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div><h2><a href="http://lwc.daanvanesch.nl/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">LWC Weibo corpus</a></h2>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>chengyu</th>
<th>no. hits</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>来之不易</td>
<td>26411</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>恭喜发财</td>
<td>12648</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>龙马精神</td>
<td>10904</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>有感而发</td>
<td>7451</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>万事如意</td>
<td>6750</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>一呼百应</td>
<td>6310</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>欢欢喜喜</td>
<td>5145</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>战鼓不休</td>
<td>5105</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>生龙活虎</td>
<td>4980</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>金枝玉叶</td>
<td>3848</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>I'm not sure why this is different to the other corpora.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-24T07:55:46.713Z
不好意思 was not in my chengyu specific dictionary, regular chinese dictionary just showed it as詞語。 莫名其妙 was in there for the top leeds list result, so probably the answer there.  for reference 無論如何 was highest blcu and  來之不易 was top lwc to actually show in dictionary as chengyu.
zagrycha
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-22T17:22:35.880Z
I think most of these in the lists belong to the category of "惯用语(collocations)" rather than "成語(chengyu)", which usually have a story behind, or have philosophical meanings.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-01-23T09:20:35.580Z
2023-01-23T09:20:35.580Z
Becky 李蓓
<p>I was discussing a linguistics paper about chengyu in one of my YouTube videos and wondered what is the most common chengyu.  It's the kind of question someone like me would like to know off the top of my head.  But I don't know...</p>
<p>I Googled the question in <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+most+common+chengyu%3F" rel="nofollow noreferrer">English</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%9C%80%E5%B8%B8%E8%A7%81%E7%9A%84%E6%88%90%E8%AF%AD%E6%98%AF%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%EF%BC%9F" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Chinese</a>, and found lists of common chengyu, but these are based on people's subjective impressions, and not actual data, and nobody says which is <em>the</em> most common chengyu, just e.g. &quot;here's 100 common chengyu&quot;.</p>
<p>The most common character is 的.  The most common word is 一 (<a href="https://lingua.mtsu.edu/chinese-computing/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Junda</a>), 我 (<a href="http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/query-zh.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Leeds (internet)</a>; <a href="http://lwc.daanvanesch.nl/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">LWC</a>), or 在 (<a href="https://www.plecoforums.com/threads/word-frequency-list-based-on-a-15-billion-character-corpus-bcc-blcu-chinese-corpus.5859/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BLCU</a>) depending on corpus (I'm not counting 的 nor 了 as words, or 的 would be the most common word).</p>
<p><strong>Question</strong>: Which is the most common chengyu (idiom)?</p>
<p>I feel like this is the kind of thing someone should already know.  I really can't guess which is <em>the</em> most common chengyu; perhaps it's 不可思议 or 乱七八糟.</p>

<idioms><chengyu><database>
Which is the most common chengyu (idiom)?
# Which is the most common chengyu (idiom)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-01-23)

I was discussing a linguistics paper about chengyu in one of my YouTube videos and wondered what is the most common chengyu. It's the kind of question someone like me would like to know off the top of my head. But I don't know...

I Googled the question in [English](https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+most+common+chengyu%3F) and [Chinese](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%9C%80%E5%B8%B8%E8%A7%81%E7%9A%84%E6%88%90%E8%AF%AD%E6%98%AF%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%EF%BC%9F), and found lists of common chengyu, but these are based on people's subjective impressions, and not actual data, and nobody says which is *the* most common chengyu, just e.g. "here's 100 common chengyu".

The most common character is 的. The most common word is 一 ([Junda](https://lingua.mtsu.edu/chinese-computing/)), 我 ([Leeds (internet)](http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/query-zh.html); [LWC](http://lwc.daanvanesch.nl/)), or 在 ([BLCU](https://www.plecoforums.com/threads/word-frequency-list-based-on-a-15-billion-character-corpus-bcc-blcu-chinese-corpus.5859/)) depending on corpus (I'm not counting 的 nor 了 as words, or 的 would be the most common word).

**Question**: Which is the most common chengyu (idiom)?

I feel like this is the kind of thing someone should already know. I really can't guess which is *the* most common chengyu; perhaps it's 不可思议 or 乱七八糟.

**Tags:** idioms, chengyu, database


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2023-01-23. Score: 1

Actually, I can work this out myself. It depends on the corpus, and what you consider is or isn't a chengyu. For simplicity, I'll only search for 4-character chengyu. Doing this search, we get a whole bunch of 4-character words like 社会主义 and 工作人员, which I leave off. Below I list the 4-character phrases which I feel could be interpreted as a chengyu (and if you don't think it's a chengyu, just pretend it's not there).

I feel like the correct answer is among: (a) 不好意思, (b) 莫名其妙, (c) 好不容易, (d) 不知不觉, and (e) 有感而发.

## [Leeds internet corpus](http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/query-zh.html)

| chengyu | no. occurrences per 1mil hanzi |
| --- | --- |
| 不好意思 | 36.67 |
| 莫名其妙 | 19.35 |
| 好不容易 | 18.75 |
| 不知不觉 | 18.23 |
| 各种各样 | 17.34 |
| 绝大多数 | 14.65 |
| 小心翼翼 | 14.60 |
| 不可思议 | 14.43 |
| 与此同时 | 13.58 |
| 哈哈大笑 | 11.03 |

## [BLCU global corpus](https://www.plecoforums.com/threads/word-frequency-list-based-on-a-15-billion-character-corpus-bcc-blcu-chinese-corpus.5859/)

| chengyu | count |
| --- | --- |
| 有感而发 | 713476 |
| 与此同时 | 621536 |
| 不好意思 | 421657 |
| 绝大多数 | 402207 |
| 无论如何 | 232946 |
| 莫名其妙 | 230452 |
| 好不容易 | 226637 |
| 前所未有 | 224422 |
| 不可思议 | 223894 |
| 绝大部分 | 216299 |

## [LWC Weibo corpus](http://lwc.daanvanesch.nl/)

| chengyu | no. hits |
| --- | --- |
| 来之不易 | 26411 |
| 恭喜发财 | 12648 |
| 龙马精神 | 10904 |
| 有感而发 | 7451 |
| 万事如意 | 6750 |
| 一呼百应 | 6310 |
| 欢欢喜喜 | 5145 |
| 战鼓不休 | 5105 |
| 生龙活虎 | 4980 |
| 金枝玉叶 | 3848 |

I'm not sure why this is different to the other corpora.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 不好意思 was not in my chengyu specific dictionary, regular chinese dictionary just showed it as詞語。 莫名其妙 was in there for the top leeds list result, so probably the answer there.  for reference 無論如何 was highest blcu and  來之不易 was top lwc to actually show in dictionary as chengyu.  
> **username_2**: I think most of these in the lists belong to the category of "惯用语(collocations)" rather than "成語(chengyu)", which usually have a story behind, or have philosophical meanings.  

---

