海闊天空

简 海阔天空 · 繁 海闊天空
Mandarin · pinyin hǎi kuò tiān kōng

Meanings

  1. wide sea and sky (idiom); boundless open vistas
  2. the whole wide world
  3. chatting about everything under the sun
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

海
hǎi · sea, ocean; maritime
闊
Look up this written character
天
tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
空
kōng · empty, hollow, bare, deserted
阔
kuò · broad, ample, wide; be apart
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–4–1–1 · hai3 kuo4 tian1 kong1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character 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.

海闊天空 · find source passages ↗ · 海阔天空 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hoi2 fut3 tin1 hung1

Cantonese word readings for 海闊天空. 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. (literary) the sea and the sky is expansive and boundless
  2. (idiomatic) bold and unconstrained
  3. (of imagination or a conversation) without restriction or limit; discursive

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

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

海闊天空 · hai3 kuo4 tian1 kong1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 65,576
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record海闊天空 海阔天空 [hai3 kuo4 tian1 kong1] /wide sea and sky (idiom); boundless open vistas/the whole wide world/chatting about everything under the sun/