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醍醐灌頂

简醍醐灌顶 · 繁醍醐灌頂

Mandarin · pinyin tí hú guàn dǐng

lit. to anoint your head with the purest cream (idiom); fig. to enlighten people with perfect wisdom
flawless Buddhist teaching

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Characters in this entry

醍: tí · essential oil of butter
醐: hú · purest cream
灌: guàn · pour; water; irrigate, flood
頂: Look up this written character
顶: dǐng · top, summit, peak; to carry on the head

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–3 · ti2 hu2 guan4 ding3

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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.

醍醐灌頂 · find source passages ↗ · 醍醐灌顶 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tai4 wu4 gun3 deng2

Cantonese word readings for 醍醐灌頂. 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

(Buddhism) to enlighten someone with wisdom for achieving nirvana
(figurative) to inspire someone with insightful words

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

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