里应外合 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to coordinate outside and inside offensives
• (fig.) to act together

Character by character

• 里lǐunit of distance equal to 0.5km; village; lane
• 应yìngshould, must; to respond, to handle; to deal with,
• 外wàiout, outside, external; foreign; in addition
• 合héto combine, to join, to unite; to gather

Idioms sharing a character

• 一日千里 yī rì qiān lǐ
• 千里迢迢 qiān lǐ tiáo tiáo
• 千里鹅毛 qiān lǐ é máo
• 吃里扒外 chī lǐ pá wài
• 字里行间 zì lǐ háng jiān
• 心里有数 xīn lǐ yǒu shù
• 忙里偷闲 máng lǐ tōu xián
• 曲里拐弯 qū lǐ guǎi wān
• 死里逃生 sǐ lǐ táo shēng
• 决胜千里 jué shèng qiān lǐ

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.