DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

大器晚成

Mandarin · pinyin dà qì wǎn chéng

lit. it takes a long time to make a big pot (idiom); fig. a great talent matures slowly
in the fullness of time a major figure will develop into a pillar of the state
Rome wasn't built in a day

Characters in this entry

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

4–4–3–2 · da4 qi4 wan3 cheng2

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

daai6 hei3 maan5 sing4

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

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

(idiomatic) a person of great talent matures late and achieves success only later in life; (by extension) great things take a long time to come to fruition