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海枯石爛

简 海枯石烂 · 繁 海枯石爛
Mandarin · pinyin hǎi kū shí làn

Meanings

  1. (lit.) until the seas dry up and stones go soft (idiom)
  2. (fig.) forever; until the end of time
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Characters in this entry

海
hǎi · sea, ocean; maritime
枯
kū · dried out, withered, decayed
石
shí · stone, rock, mineral; Kangxi radical 112
爛
Look up this written character
烂
làn · rotten, spoiled, decayed
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Entries containing 海枯石爛 ↗Words written with 海 ↗Words written with 枯 ↗Words written with 石 ↗Words written with 爛 ↗Words written with 烂 ↗

Mandarin tones

3–1–2–4 · hai3 ku1 shi2 lan4

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) end of the world

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

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

海枯石爛 · hai3 ku1 shi2 lan4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 65,421
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record海枯石爛 海枯石烂 [hai3 ku1 shi2 lan4] /(lit.) until the seas dry up and stones go soft (idiom)/(fig.) forever; until the end of time/