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出人頭地

简出人头地 · 繁出人頭地

Mandarin · pinyin chū rén tóu dì

to stand out among one's peers (idiom)
to excel

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Characters in this entry

出: chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
頭: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
地: de · dì · earth; soil, ground; region
头: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2–4 · chu1 ren2 tou2 di4

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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.

出人頭地 · find source passages ↗ · 出人头地 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ceot1 jan4 tau4 dei6

Cantonese word readings for 出人頭地. 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) to be outstanding; to stand out among others

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

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