八九不離十

简 八九不离十 · 繁 八九不離十
Mandarin · pinyin bā jiǔ bù lí shí

Meanings

  1. pretty close
  2. very near
  3. about right
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Characters in this entry

八
bā · eight; all around, all sides
九
jiǔ · nine
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
離
Look up this written character
十
shí · ten, tenth; complete; perfect
离
lí · rare beast; strange; elegant
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–2–2 · ba1 jiu3 bu4 li2 shi2

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

baat3 gau2 bat1 lei4 sap6

Cantonese word readings for 八九不離十. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

baat3 gau2 bat1 lei4 sap6

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (colloquial) almost

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack