萬丈高樓平地起
简 万丈高楼平地起 · 繁 萬丈高樓平地起Meanings
- towering buildings are built up from the ground (idiom)
- great oaks from little acorns grow
Characters in this entry
- 萬
- Look up this written character
- 丈
- zhàng · unit of length equal 3.3 meters; gentleman, man, husband
- 高
- gāo · high, tall; lofty, elevated; Kangxi radical 189
- 樓
- Look up this written character
- 平
- píng · flat, level, even; peaceful
- 地
- de · dì · earth; soil, ground; region
- 起
- qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
- 万
- wàn · mò · ten thousand; innumerable
- 楼
- lóu · building of two or more stories
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4–4–1–2–2–4–3 · wan4 zhang4 gao1 lou2 ping2 di4 qi3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
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.
萬丈高樓平地起 · find source passages ↗ · 万丈高楼平地起 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
maan6 zoeng6 gou1 lau4 ping4 dei6 hei2
Cantonese word readings for 萬丈高樓平地起. 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
- (figurative) take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves; many a mickle makes a muckle
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack