DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

天長日久

简天长日久 · 繁天長日久

Mandarin · pinyin tiān cháng rì jiǔ

after a long time (idiom)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
長: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader; Kangxi radical 168
日: rì · sun; day; daytime
久: jiǔ · long time (ago); time passage, grow late
长: zhǎng · long; length; excel in; leader

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2–4–3 · tian1 chang2 ri4 jiu3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character 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.

天長日久 · find source passages ↗ · 天长日久 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 coeng4 jat6 gau2

Cantonese word readings for 天長日久. 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) after a considerable period of time

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

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