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出乎意外

Mandarin · pinyin chū hū yì wài

beyond expectation (idiom); unexpected

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Characters in this entry

出: chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
乎: hū · interrogative or exclamatory final particle
意: yì · thought, idea, opinion; think
外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · chu1 hu1 yi4 wai4

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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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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ceot1 fu4 ji3 ngoi6

Cantonese word readings for 出乎意外. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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