一言千金

Mandarin · pinyin yī yán qiān jīn

Meanings

  1. one word worth a thousand in gold (idiom); valuable advice
  2. words of enormous weight
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Characters in this entry

一
yī · one; a, an; alone
言
yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
千
qiān · thousand; many, numerous; very; (Cant.) a cheater, swindler
金
jīn · gold; metals in general; money; Kangxi radical 167
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–2–1–1 · yi1 yan2 qian1 jin1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jat1 jin4 cin1 gam1

Cantonese word readings for 一言千金. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

一言千金 · yi1 yan2 qian1 jin1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 915
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record一言千金 一言千金 [yi1 yan2 qian1 jin1] /one word worth a thousand in gold (idiom); valuable advice/words of enormous weight/