掃除天下

简 扫除天下 · 繁 掃除天下
Mandarin · pinyin sǎo chú tiān xià

Meanings

  1. (idiom) to re-establish order throughout the empire
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

掃
sǎo · sweep, clear away; exterminate
除
chú · eliminate, remove, except
天
tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
下
xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
扫
sǎo · sweep, clear away; exterminate
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–2–1–4 · sao3 chu2 tian1 xia4

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.

掃除天下 · find source passages ↗ · 扫除天下 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗