Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

天 (radical 37 大+1, 4 strokes, cangjie input 一大 (MK), four-corner 1043₀, composition ⿱一大)

Descendants

• Japanese: て, テ

References

• KangXi: page 248, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5833
• Dae Jaweon: page 500, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 522, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5929

Chinese

The sky over Guangdong.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in Beijing's Temple of Heaven.

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 天
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

A top line representing the level above a man with outstretched arms (大 (dà)). Ancient representation of the character show a man with a large head, an anthropomorphic representation of heaven.

Original meaning of the word is "sky". Such concept is difficult to depict with a pictogram, hence the current form. Influenced by the glyph, the character was frequently glossed in Old Chinese documents with 顛 (“crown of the head”), and such had led to incorrect hypotheses which regarded 天 as a derivation of 顛 or 巔, "top (of the head/hill)".

Graphical opposite of 立 (lì).

Etymology

This character was previously reconstructed to have a *tʰ-initial in Old Chinese, but this hypothesis has been largely discounted in recent reconstructions, in light of evidence from early Chinese accounts of dialectal pronunciations, transcription of other languages, as well as cognate/derived characters within Chinese, which has all pointed to a voiceless resonant initial *l̥- in Old Chinese. The book Shiming showed that, by c. 200 CE, this initial had already produced dialectal variation in the pronunciation: People in central-western China pronounced it with the back of the tongue, like 顯 [*xˤenʔ], while people in eastern China pronounced it with the tip of the tongue, like 坦 [*tʰˤanʔ]. An old northwestern dialect variant survives as 祆 (xiān, “God of the Zoroastrians”) [xen], and the word 天竺 (Tiānzhú, “India”) was used to transcribe Old Persian *Hind-uka ("India").

Further etymology is unknown. While it was reconstructed with a /*tʰ-/ initial, it was frequently compared with tengri, the name for God in early Turkic and Mongolic peoples' languages. This now appears unlikely. The only certain external cognate is the Central Bai (a language closely related to Chinese) word heinl ‎(“sky, heaven”) [xẽ⁵⁵]. 

Pronunciation

Definitions

天

1. sky; heavens; heavenly; celestial
   • 天空  ―  tiānkōng  ―  sky

   天黑了。  ―  Tiān hēi le.  ―  It's getting dark.

2. (mythology or religion) heaven as the abode of the gods or the blessed departed; heavenly.
   • 上天  ―  shàngtiān  ―  to go up to the sky; to go to heaven
   • 天意  ―  tiānyì  ―  Heaven's will
3. (mythology or religion) Heaven as an impersonal deity, often translated as God.
   • 天主  ―  tiānzhǔ  ―  God
   • 老天  ―  lǎotiān  ―  god
   • 我的天啊！  ―  Wǒ de tiān a!  ―  Oh my God!
   • 天助自助者。  ―  Tiān zhù zì zhù zhě.  ―  God helps those who help themselves.
4. top; overhead
   • 天橋 / 天桥  ―  tiānqiáo  ―  footbridge
   • 天窗  ―  tiānchuāng  ―  skylight
5. weather; climate
   • 天氣 / 天气  ―  tiānqì  ―  weather
   • 如果天晴，我們就去散步。 [MSC, trad.]
     如果天晴，我们就去散步。 [MSC, simp.]

     Rúguǒ tiān qíng, wǒmen jiù qù sànbù. [Pinyin]

     If the weather clears, we'll go for a walk.

6. ^†day (24 hours)

   今天  ―  jīntiān  ―  today

   明天  ―  míngtiān  ―  tomorrow

7. ^†day (as opposed to night)

   白天  ―  báitiān  ―  daytime

8. ^†season
   • 春天、夏天、秋天、冬天 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

     chūntiān, xiàtiān, qiūtiān, dōngtiān [Pinyin]

     spring, summer, autumn, winter

9. nature
   • 天災 / 天灾  ―  tiānzāi  ―  natural disaster
10. natural; innate
    • 天生 (tiānshēng, “innate”)
    • 天性 (tiānxìng, “nature, personality”)
    • 天才 (tiāncái, “genius”)

Synonyms

• 日 (rì, “day (to express date)”)

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. heavens, sky

Readings

• Goon: てん (ten)
• Kan’on: てん (ten)
• Kun: あま (ama), あめ (ame)
• Nanori: かみ (kami), そら (sora), たか (taka), たかし (takashi)

Compounds

Etymology 1

From Old Japanese. Usually appears as a bound form only appearing in compounds.^[1][2] Compare the formation of 目 ‎(ma, bound form in compounds) and 目 ‎(me, standalone form), 手 ‎(ta, bound form in compounds) and 手 ‎(te, standalone form).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [a̠ma̠]

Noun

天 ‎(hiragana あま, romaji ama)

1. (archaic) the sky, the heavens
2. the area above a kitchen stove:
   1. where the smoke collects in an old kitchen using a wood-burning stove
   2. a shelf or shelves above the stove
3. (archaic) heaven

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese ama (see above).^[1] Likely derived by fusion of ama + い ‎(i, emphatic nominative particle), similar to the derivation of other words such as 神 ‎(kami, kamu + i), 目 ‎(me, ma + i), etc.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) あ​め [áꜜmè] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [a̠me̞]

Noun

天 ‎(hiragana あめ, romaji ame)

1. (archaic) the sky, the heavens
2. (archaic) heaven
3. (archaic) the roof of a palace

Idioms

Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Middle Chinese 天 ‎(/tʰen/, “sky; heavens”). Compare modern Mandarin reading tiān.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Goon
• (Tokyo) て​ん [téꜜǹ] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [tẽ̞ɴ]

Noun

天 ‎(hiragana てん, romaji ten)

1. the sky, the heavens
2. heaven
3. (metaphorically) the gods, providence, fate

Idioms

Derived terms

References

1. 1 2 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 3 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. 1 2 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

天 • ‎(cheon)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 천 (revised: cheon, McCune-Reischauer: ch'ŏn)

• Name (hangeul): 하늘()

1. (하늘 천, haneul cheon) sky; heaven; Godhead; tao; etc.

Synonyms

• 乾 (건, geon)

Antonyms

• 地 (지, ji)
• 坤 (곤, gon)

Compounds

• 天子 (천자, cheonja) king
• 天才 (천재, cheonjae) genius
• 天地 (천지, cheonji) heaven and earth
• 天平秤 (천평칭, cheonpyeongching) scale, balance
• 天下 (천하, cheonha) all the world over

Vietnamese

Han character

天 (thiên, yêu, quách)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.