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天壤之別

简天壤之别 · 繁天壤之別

Mandarin · pinyin tiān rǎng zhī bié

(lit.) the difference between heaven and earth (idiom)
(fig.) night and day difference; a world of difference; a far cry (from)

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
壤: rǎng · soil, loam, earth; rich
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
別: Look up this written character
别: bié · separate, other; do not

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1–2 · tian1 rang3 zhi1 bie2

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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.

天壤之別 · find source passages ↗ · 天壤之别 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 joeng6 zi1 bit6

Cantonese word readings for 天壤之別. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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) to be poles apart; to be like night and day; to be a world of difference between them

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

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