DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

大禍臨頭

简大祸临头 · 繁大禍臨頭

Mandarin · pinyin dà huò lín tóu

facing imminent catastrophe
calamity looms
all hell will break loose

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Characters in this entry

大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
禍: Look up this written character
臨: Look up this written character
頭: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
祸: huò · misfortune, calamity, disaster
临: lín · draw near, approach; descend
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

4–4–2–2 · da4 huo4 lin2 tou2

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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.

大禍臨頭 · find source passages ↗ · 大祸临头 · find source passages ↗

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