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晴天霹靂

简晴天霹雳 · 繁晴天霹靂

Mandarin · pinyin qíng tiān pī lì

lit. thunderclap from a clear sky (idiom)
fig. a bolt from the blue

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Characters in this entry

晴: qíng · clear weather, fine weather
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
霹: pī · thunder, crashing thunder
靂: Look up this written character
雳: lì · thunderclap, crashing thunder

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–1–4 · qing2 tian1 pi1 li4

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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.

晴天霹靂 · find source passages ↗ · 晴天霹雳 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cing4 tin1 pik1 lik1

Cantonese word readings for 晴天霹靂. 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) bolt from the blue; sudden and unexpected bad news

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

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