理睬

• Pinyin: lǐ cǎi
• Hanzi breakdown: 理 = 王 (jade radical) + 里 (inside — manage/attend); 睬 = 目 (eye) + 采 (pick/select — notice/perceive)

Meaning

To pay attention to; to take notice of; to respond to. Almost always used in the negative — 不理睬 (to ignore completely).

Typically appears in negative constructions: 不理睬 (pay no attention to), 无人理睬 (nobody takes notice), 不加理睬 (to completely disregard). The positive form is rare in everyday usage. Implies a social or communicative response — or the deliberate withholding of one.

Examples

1. 她多次向上级反映问题，却始终得不到任何理睬。 She reported the issue to her superiors many times, but never got any response.
2. 无论旁人怎么劝说，他都不理睬，固执地坚持自己的做法。 No matter how others tried to persuade him, he ignored them and stubbornly stuck to his approach.
3. 这封投诉信发出后石沉大海，没有得到任何理睬。 After the complaint letter was sent, it vanished without a trace and received no response at all.

Usage Guide

Context: social, communication, interpersonal, administration

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 他对所有批评一概不理睬，继续按自己的方式行事。(He paid no attention whatsoever to all the criticism and continued doing things his own way.)
• 她在嘈杂的房间里大声呼喊，却无人理睬。(She called out loudly in the noisy room, but nobody took any notice.)

Don't Say

• 单独将理睬用于肯定句 — 理睬几乎专用于否定结构如'不理睬'或'无人理睬'，肯定句中应改用'回应'或'关注'

Origin & History

理 (to manage/attend to) + 睬 (to notice/pay attention)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal