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天下烏鴉一般黑

简天下乌鸦一般黑 · 繁天下烏鴉一般黑

Mandarin · pinyin tiān xià wū yā yī bān hēi

all crows are black (idiom)
evil people are bad all over the world

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
烏: Look up this written character
鴉: Look up this written character
一: yī · one; a, an; alone
般: bān · sort, manner, kind, category
黑: hēi · black; dark; evil, sinister; Kangxi radical 203
乌: wū · crow, rook, raven; black, dark
鸦: yā · crow; Corvus species (various)

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–1–1–1–1–1 · tian1 xia4 wu1 ya1 yi1 ban1 hei1

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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.

天下烏鴉一般黑 · find source passages ↗ · 天下乌鸦一般黑 · find source passages ↗

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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.

proverb

bad people or things are similar everywhere

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

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