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天下第一

Mandarin · pinyin tiān xià dì yī

first under heaven
number one in the country

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
第: dì · sequence, number; grade, degree
一: yī · one; a, an; alone

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4–1 · tian1 xia4 di4 yi1

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) number one in the world; peerless; unequaled

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

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