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水滴石穿

Mandarin · pinyin shuǐ dī shí chuān

dripping water penetrates the stone (idiom); constant perseverance yields success
You can achieve your aim if you try hard without giving up.
Persistent effort overcomes any difficulty.

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Characters in this entry

水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
滴: dī · drip; drop of water
石: shí · stone, rock, mineral; Kangxi radical 112
穿: chuān · penetrate, pierce, drill; wear

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–2–1 · shui3 di1 shi2 chuan1

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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 Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

seoi2 dik1 sek6 cyun1

Cantonese word readings for 水滴石穿. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

proverb

little strokes fell great oaks

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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