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為德不終

简 为德不终 · 繁 為德不終
Mandarin · pinyin wéi dé bù zhōng

Meanings

  1. to start on virtue but give up (idiom); to fail to carry things through
  2. lack of sticking power
  3. short attention span
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Characters in this entry

為
Look up this written character
德
dé · ethics, morality, virtue
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
終
Look up this written character
为
wèi · do, handle, govern, act; be
终
zhōng · end; finally, in the end
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Entries containing 為德不終 ↗Words written with 為 ↗Words written with 德 ↗Words written with 不 ↗Words written with 終 ↗Words written with 为 ↗Words written with 终 ↗

Mandarin tones

2–2–4–1 · wei2 de2 bu4 zhong1

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

wai4 dak1 bat1 zung1

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

為德不終 · wei2 de2 bu4 zhong1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 69,470
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record為德不終 为德不终 [wei2 de2 bu4 zhong1] /to start on virtue but give up (idiom); to fail to carry things through/lack of sticking power/short attention span/