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天差地別

简天差地别 · 繁天差地別

Mandarin · pinyin tiān chā dì bié

(idiom) poles apart; as different as can be

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Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
差: chà · chā · to differ; different, wrong; nearly, almost; an officer
地: de · dì · earth; soil, ground; region
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

1–1–4–2 · tian1 cha1 di4 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.

天差地別 · find source passages ↗ · 天差地别 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 caa1 dei6 bit6

Cantonese word readings for 天差地別. 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 completely different; to be poles apart

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

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