始料未及

Mandarin · pinyin shǐ liào wèi jí

Meanings

  1. not expected at the outset (idiom)
  2. unforeseen
  3. to be surprised by the turn of events
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

始
shǐ · begin, start; then, only then
料
liào · consider, conjecture; materials, ingredients
未
wèi · not yet; eighth earthly branch
及
jí · extend; reach; come up to; and
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–4–4–2 · shi3 liao4 wei4 ji2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

ci2 liu6 mei6 kap6

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. (idiomatic) unexpected

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

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

始料未及 · shi3 liao4 wei4 ji2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 30,484
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record始料未及 始料未及 [shi3 liao4 wei4 ji2] /not expected at the outset (idiom)/unforeseen/to be surprised by the turn of events/