天馬行空

简 天马行空 · 繁 天馬行空
Mandarin · pinyin tiān mǎ xíng kōng

Meanings

  1. like a heavenly steed, soaring across the skies (idiom)
  2. (of writing, calligraphy etc) bold and imaginative
  3. unconstrained in style
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Characters in this entry

天
tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
馬
Look up this written character
行
xíng · go; walk; move, travel; circulate; Kangxi radical 144
空
kōng · empty, hollow, bare, deserted
马
mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3–2–1 · tian1 ma3 xing2 kong1

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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.

天馬行空 · find source passages ↗ · 天马行空 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tin1 maa5 hang4 hung1

Cantonese word readings for 天馬行空. 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

  1. (figurative, of literary composition, life, etc.) powerful and unrestrained in style; bold and imaginative; abounding with novel ideas
  2. (figurative) progressing swiftly; unrestricted and developing rapidly
  3. (figurative, derogatory) speaking in a roundabout, irrelevant or exaggerated way; empty and impracticable talk

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

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

天馬行空 · tian1 ma3 xing2 kong1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 29,012
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record天馬行空 天马行空 [tian1 ma3 xing2 kong1] /like a heavenly steed, soaring across the skies (idiom)/(of writing, calligraphy etc) bold and imaginative/unconstrained in style/