此起彼伏

cǐqǐ-bǐfú
idiom HSK 7 #47,728

Meanings

  1. 1 one after another; rising and falling in succession
  2. 2 one subsides as another rises

Characters

This one rises (), that one falls () — a continuous, wave-like pattern of things happening in succession.

Examples

Zhǎngshēng cǐqǐ-bǐfú.
Applause rose and fell in waves.
Shānjiān de niǎo jiào shēng cǐqǐ-bǐfú.
Birdsong echoed back and forth among the mountains.

Tips

usage
此起彼伏 vividly describes sounds (applause, waves, gunfire), events (protests, conflicts), or any phenomena that overlap in a continuous wave pattern. It's a very common idiom in written Chinese, especially in news and literature.

Stroke Order