lit. use others' strengths to make up for one's weak points (idiom from Mencius); to use this in place of that; what you lose on the swings, you win on the roundabouts
trad. 取長補短
Also written 取長補短【qǔ cháng bǔ duǎn】
Characters in this word
4取
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to take, to get, to choose, to fetch
- Pinyin
- qǔ
- Strokes
- 8
- Frequency
- 3148 of 2500
长
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
long, (bound form) length, (bound form) strong point; forte, (bound form) to be good at, (literary) surplus; spare (Taiwan pr. [zhang4])
- Pinyin
- cháng
- Traditional
- 長
- Strokes
- 4
- Frequency
- 1042 of 2500
补
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
to repair, to patch, to mend, to make up for, to fill (a vacancy), to supplement
- Pinyin
- bǔ
- Traditional
- 補
- Strokes
- 7
- Frequency
- 10841 of 2500
短
Strokes: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0
short, brief, to lack, weak point, fault
- Pinyin
- duǎn
- Strokes
- 12
- Frequency
- 3410 of 2500