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起死回生

qǐ sǐ huí shēngdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
to rise from the dead (idiom) / fig. an unexpected recovery
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-6c1254457407bb36. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

起死回生 起死回生 [qi3 si3 hui2 sheng1] /to rise from the dead (idiom); fig. an unexpected recovery/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

  • 起
    qǐ

    to rise / to raise / to get up / to set out / to start / to appear / to launch / to initiate (action) / to draft / to establish / to get (from a depot or counter) / verb suffix, to start / starting from (a time, place, price etc) / classifier for occurrences or unpredictable events: case, instance / classifier for groups: batch, group

  • 死
    sǐ

    to die / impassable / uncrossable / inflexible / rigid / extremely / damned

  • 回
    huí

    to go back / to return / to turn back / to turn around / to reply / to answer / classifier for literary divisions (acts of a play, sections or chapters of a classic book) / classifier for occurrences or times / to curve / to return / to revolve

    Huí

    Hui ethnic group (Chinese Muslims)

  • 生
    shēng

    to grow / to give birth / to produce / to be born / to arise / to occur / to light (a fire) / to live / to be alive / life / raw / uncooked / unprocessed / unfamiliar / strange / (bound form) student / person engaged in a field / (bound form) male role in traditional opera / (bound form) life / lifetime / (bound form) means of livelihood / (bound form) very / intensely (as in 生疼[shēng téng]) / (bound form) in a forced manner (as in 生拉硬拽[shēng lā yìng zhuài])

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.