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獨木不成林

简 独木不成林 · 繁 獨木不成林
Mandarin · pinyin dú mù bù chéng lín

Meanings

  1. a lone tree does not make a forest (idiom)
  2. one cannot accomplish much on one's own
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Characters in this entry

獨
Look up this written character
木
mù · tree; wood, lumber; wooden
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
成
chéng · completed, finished, fixed
林
lín · forest, grove; surname
独
dú · alone, single, solitary, only
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Entries containing 獨木不成林 ↗Words written with 獨 ↗Words written with 木 ↗Words written with 不 ↗Words written with 成 ↗Words written with 林 ↗Words written with 独 ↗

Mandarin tones

2–4–4–2–2 · du2 mu4 bu4 cheng2 lin2

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

duk6 muk6 bat1 sing4 lam4

Cantonese word readings for 獨木不成林. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

duk6 muk6 bat1 sing4 lam4

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

獨木不成林 · du2 mu4 bu4 cheng2 lin2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 72,703
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record獨木不成林 独木不成林 [du2 mu4 bu4 cheng2 lin2] /a lone tree does not make a forest (idiom)/one cannot accomplish much on one's own/