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中天

Mandarin · pinyin zhōng tiān

(literary) midheaven; highest point in the sky
(astronomy) culmination; transit across the meridian

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Characters in this entry

中: zhōng · central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1 · zhong1 tian1

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Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

midair; midheaven; zenith
(astronomy) culmination

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

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