Chinese word dictionary

喜出望外

xǐchūwàngwài · to be pleased beyond one's expectations (idiom); overjoyed at the turn of events

Practice word

Word information

Simplified喜出望外

Traditional喜出望外

Pinyinxǐchūwàngwài

Part of speechGeneral

HSK 3.07-9

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

喜xǐ

to love; to enjoy, to be happy; joyful, glad

出chū

to go out, to send out; stand; produce

望wàng

to expect, to hope, to look forward to

外wài

out, outside, external; foreign; in addition

How to learn 喜出望外

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

出租车chūzūchē

taxi; (Tw) rental car

外wài

outside; in addition; foreign; external

外边wàibian

outside; outer surface; abroad; place other than one's home

喜欢xǐhuan

to like; to be fond of

出chū

to go out; to come out; to arise; to occur; to produce; to yield; to go beyond; to exceed; (used after a verb to indicate an outward direction or a positive result); classifier for dramas, plays, operas etc; variant of 出[chu1] (classifier for plays or chapters of classical novels)

出国chūguó

to go abroad; to leave the country