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東窗事發

简东窗事发 · 繁東窗事發

Mandarin · pinyin dōng chuāng shì fā

(of a plot etc) to be exposed (idiom)
to come to light

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Characters in this entry

東: dōng · east, eastern, eastward
窗: chuāng · window
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
發: fā · issue, dispatch, send out, emit
东: dōng · east, eastern, eastward
发: fā · issue, dispatch, send out; hair

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–1 · dong1 chuang1 shi4 fa1

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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.

東窗事發 · find source passages ↗ · 东窗事发 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

dung1 coeng1 si6 faat3

Cantonese word readings for 東窗事發. 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.

verb

(of a plot) to come to light; to be exposed

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

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