DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

天妒英才

Mandarin · pinyin tiān dù yīng cái

heaven is jealous of heroic genius (idiom); the great have great hardship to contend with
those whom the Gods love die young

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
妒: dù · jealous, envious
英: yīng · petal, flower, leaf; brave, a hero; England, English
才: cái · talent, ability; just, only

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–4–1–2 · tian1 du4 ying1 cai2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

天妒英才 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 dou3 jing1 coi4

Cantonese word readings for 天妒英才. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) The Heaven is jealous of talents. (used to express regret to a talented person who died young)

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack