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天差地遠

简天差地远 · 繁天差地遠

Mandarin · pinyin tiān chā dì yuǎn

poles apart (idiom)
entirely different

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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
遠: yuǎn · distant, remote, far; profound
远: yuǎn · distant, remote, far; profound

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–3 · tian1 cha1 di4 yuan3

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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.

天差地遠 · find source passages ↗ · 天差地远 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 caa1 dei6 jyun5

Cantonese word readings for 天差地遠. 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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