只要功夫深,鐵杵磨成針

简 只要功夫深,铁杵磨成针 · 繁 只要功夫深,鐵杵磨成針
Mandarin · pinyin zhǐ yào gōng fu shēn , tiě chǔ mó chéng zhēn

Meanings

  1. If you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle.
  2. cf idiom 磨杵成針, to grind an iron bar down to a fine needle (idiom); fig. to persevere in a difficult task
  3. to study diligently
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

只
zhǐ · only, just, simply
要
yào · necessary, essential; necessity
功
gōng · achievement, merit, good result
夫
fū · man, male adult, husband; those
深
shēn · deep; depth; far; very, extreme
鐵
Look up this written character
杵
chǔ · pestle; baton used beat clothes
磨
mó · grind; polish; rub; wear out; a millstone
成
chéng · completed, finished, fixed
針
Look up this written character
铁
tiě · iron; strong, solid, firm
针
zhēn · needle; pin; tack; acupuncture
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Connected dictionary

10character links
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

只要功夫深,鐵杵磨成針 · find source passages ↗ · 只要功夫深,铁杵磨成针 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

只要功夫深,鐵杵磨成針 · zhi3 yao4 gong1 fu5 shen1 , tie3 chu3 mo2 cheng2 zhen1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 19,087
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record只要功夫深,鐵杵磨成針 只要功夫深,铁杵磨成针 [zhi3 yao4 gong1 fu5 shen1 , tie3 chu3 mo2 cheng2 zhen1] /If you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle./cf idiom 磨杵成針|磨杵成针, to grind an iron bar down to a fine needle (idiom); fig. to persevere in a difficult task/to study diligently/