# 措手不及 (cuòshǒubùjí)

In Mandarin Chinese, 措手不及 (cuòshǒubùjí) means “caught off guard; unprepared”. It is part of the HSK 7–9 vocabulary list in the official HSK 3.0 standard.

- Meaning: caught off guard; unprepared
- Pinyin: cuòshǒubùjí (cuo4 shou3 bu4 ji2)
- HSK 3.0 · Level 7–9

## Examples

- 突然的大雨让大家措手不及。
  Tūrán de dàyǔ ràng dàjiā cuòshǒubùjí.
  The sudden heavy rain caught everyone off guard.

## Characters

- 措 (cuò): to handle; to manage
- [手](https://hanziro.com/word/shou-hand/) (shǒu): hand
- [不](https://hanziro.com/word/bu-not/) (bù): not; no
- [及](https://hanziro.com/word/ji-and/) (jí): (conjunction) and; to reach

https://hanziro.com/word/cuo-shou-bu-ji-caught-off-guard/

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Audio: audio-cmn (CC BY-SA).