CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

天下烏鴉一般黑

简天下乌鸦一般黑 · 繁天下烏鴉一般黑

Cantonese · source Jyutpingtin1 haa6 wu1 aa1 jat1 bun1 hak1

bad people and bad things are more or less the same everywhere

About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

tin11 · high levelhaa66 · low levelwu11 · high levelaa11 · high leveljat11 · high levelchecked · -tbun11 · high levelhak11 · high levelchecked · -k

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Same syllable, six tones

tin天tin1day 腆tin2make strong 瑱tin3田tin4field 殄tin5tin6—

haa哈haa1laughterhaa2—haa3—霞haa4red / rosy cloudshaa5—下haa6down

wu乌wu1a crow 捂wu2to enclosewu3—胡wu4non-Han ethnic tribes, esp. from central Asiawu5—护wu6to protect

aa丫aa1fork 哑aa2dumb 亚aa3Asiaaa4—aa5—aa6—

jat一jat1onejat2—jat3—jat4—jat5—日jat6sun

bun般bun1sort 本bun2roots or stems of plants 半bun3halfbun4—bun5—伴bun6Be with

hak克hak1to subduehak2—hak3—hak4—hak5—hak6—

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

天下烏鴉一般黑乌鸦

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:

天下烏鴉一般黑 tiān xià wū yā yī bān hēi CC-CEDICT · Mandarinall crows are black (idiom); evil people are bad all over the world

A separate source entry, shown for comparison. The same characters can carry different senses in Mandarin and in Cantonese; zimai does not align these senses.

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: tian1 xia4 wu1 ya1 yi1 ban1 hei1. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗

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.

proverb

bad people or things are similar everywhere

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

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