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天上掉餡餅

简天上掉馅饼 · 繁天上掉餡餅

Mandarin · pinyin tiān shàng diào xiàn bǐng

a meat pie falls from the sky (idiom)
to have something fall into your lap

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
掉: diào · turn, move; shake, wag; drop down
餡: Look up this written character
餅: bǐng · rice-cakes, biscuits
馅: xiàn · filling, stuffing; secret
饼: bǐng · rice-cakes, biscuits

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4–4–3 · tian1 shang4 diao4 xian4 bing3

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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.

天上掉餡餅 · find source passages ↗ · 天上掉馅饼 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(figurative) to have something fall into one's lap

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

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