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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

a lone tree does not make a forest (idiom)
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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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–2–2 · du2 mu4 bu4 cheng2 lin2

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

duk6 muk6 bat1 sing4 lam4

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

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