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遙遙無期

简遥遥无期 · 繁遙遙無期

Mandarin · pinyin yáo yáo wú qī

far in the indefinite future (idiom); so far away it seems forever

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Characters in this entry

遙: Look up this written character
無: Look up this written character
期: qī · period of time; date; time limit
遥: yáo · far away, distant, remote
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–2–1 · yao2 yao2 wu2 qi1

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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.

遙遙無期 · find source passages ↗ · 遥遥无期 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jiu4 jiu4 mou4 kei4

Cantonese word readings for 遙遙無期. 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) far away in time and not within the foreseeable future

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

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