LookupMandarin · 繁體 · English

ChineseCharactersMeanings inMandarin–English · CC-CEDICTSources ↗

DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

三思而後行

简三思而后行 · 繁三思而後行

Mandarin · pinyin sān sī ér hòu xíng

think again and again before acting (idiom); consider carefully in advance

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

三: sān · three
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
而: ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
後: hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
行: xíng · go; walk; move, travel; circulate; Kangxi radical 144
后: hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–2–4–2 · san1 si1 er2 hou4 xing2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

6character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

saam3 si1 ji4 hau6 hang4

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

proverb

look before you leap

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack