DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

叫苦連天

简叫苦连天 · 繁叫苦連天

Mandarin · pinyin jiào kǔ lián tiān

to whine on for days (idiom)
to endlessly grumble complaints
incessant whining

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

叫: jiào · cry, shout; hail, greet, call
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
連: Look up this written character
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
连: lián · join, connect; continuous; even

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–3–2–1 · jiao4 ku3 lian2 tian1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

叫苦連天 · find source passages ↗ · 叫苦连天 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

giu3 fu2 lin4 tin1

Cantonese word readings for 叫苦連天. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

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 full of complaints; to complain to high heaven; to complain bitterly

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

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