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喜出望外

Mandarin · pinyin xǐ chū wàng wài

to be pleased beyond one's expectations (idiom)
overjoyed at the turn of events

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Characters in this entry

喜: xǐ · like, love, enjoy; joyful thing
出: chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
望: wàng · to look at, look forward; to hope, expect
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

3–1–4–4 · xi3 chu1 wang4 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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hei2 ceot1 mong6 ngoi6

Cantonese word readings for 喜出望外. 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) to be pleasantly surprised by unexpected good news

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

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