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九霄雲外

简九霄云外 · 繁九霄雲外

Mandarin · pinyin jiǔ xiāo yún wài

beyond the topmost clouds (idiom)
unimaginably far away

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Characters in this entry

九: jiǔ · nine
霄: xiāo · sky; clouds, mist; night
雲: yún · clouds; Yunnan province
外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
云: yún · say, speak; clouds

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–2–4 · jiu3 xiao1 yun2 wai4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

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.

九霄雲外 · find source passages ↗ · 九霄云外 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gau2 siu1 wan4 ngoi6

Cantonese word readings for 九霄雲外. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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.

phrase

(idiomatic) a high and faraway place

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

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