DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

遮天蔽日

Mandarin · pinyin zhē tiān bì rì

lit. hiding the sky and covering the earth (idiom); fig. earth-shattering
omnipresent
of universal importance

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

遮: zhē · cover, shield, protect
天: tiān · sky, heaven; god, celestial
蔽: bì · cover, hide, conceal; shelter
日: rì · sun; day; daytime

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · zhe1 tian1 bi4 ri4

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.

遮天蔽日 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) extremely strong and vast

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

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