萬事起頭難
简 万事起头难 · 繁 萬事起頭難Meanings
- the first step is the hardest (idiom)
Characters in this entry
- 萬
- Look up this written character
- 事
- shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
- 起
- qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
- 頭
- tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
- 難
- Look up this written character
- 万
- wàn · mò · ten thousand; innumerable
- 头
- tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
- 难
- nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
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Mandarin tones
4–4–3–2–2 · wan4 shi4 qi3 tou2 nan2
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.
萬事起頭難 · find source passages ↗ · 万事起头难 · find source passages ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
maan6 si6 hei2 tau4 naan4
Cantonese word readings for 萬事起頭難. 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
- getting started is always the hardest part
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack