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
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德
dé · ethics, morality, virtue
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
終
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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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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–1 · wei2 de2 bu4 zhong1

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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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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/