(proverb) a blade will get rusty if it is not sharpened; a man will fall behind if he doesn't study
trad. 刀不磨要生鏽，人不學要落後
Also written 刀不磨要生鏽，人不學要落後【dāo bù mó yào shēng xiù , rén bù xué yào luò hòu】
Characters in this word
10刀
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
surname Dao
- Pinyin
- Dāo
- Strokes
- 2
- Frequency
- 1717 of 2500
不
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
no; not so, (bound form) not; un-
- Pinyin
- bù
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 9 of 2500
磨
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to rub, to grind, to polish, to sharpen, to wear down, to die out, to waste time, to pester, to insist
- Pinyin
- mó
- Strokes
- 16
- Frequency
- 15087 of 2500
要
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
(bound form) to demand; to coerce
- Pinyin
- yāo
- Strokes
- 9
- Frequency
- 24 of 2500
生
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to grow; to give birth; to produce; to be born, to arise; to occur, to light (a fire), to live; to be alive, life, raw; uncooked; unprocessed, unfamiliar; strange, (bound form) student; person engaged in a field, (bound form) male role in traditional opera, (bound form) life; lifetime, (bound form) means of livelihood, (bound form) very; intensely (as in 生疼[sheng1 teng2]), (bound form) in a forced manner (as in 生拉硬拽[sheng1 la1 ying4 zhuai4])
- Pinyin
- shēng
- Strokes
- 5
- Frequency
- 1196 of 2500
锈
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
variant of 鏽|锈[xiu4]
- Pinyin
- xiù
- Traditional
- 銹
- Strokes
- 12
- Frequency
- 46382 of 2500
人
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
person; people, CL:個|个[ge4],位[wei4],名[ming2]
- Pinyin
- rén
- Strokes
- 2
- Frequency
- 30 of 2500
学
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to learn, to study, to imitate, science, -ology
- Pinyin
- xué
- Traditional
- 學
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 1934 of 2500
落
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to leave out, to be missing, to leave behind or forget to bring, to lag or fall behind
- Pinyin
- là
- Strokes
- 12
- Frequency
- 4185 of 2500
后
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
surname Hou
- Pinyin
- Hòu
- Strokes
- 6
- Frequency
- 233 of 2500