只 要 功 夫 深，铁 杵 磨 成 针

zhǐ yào gōng fu shēn , tiě chǔ mó chéng zhēndictionary entry

If you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle. / cf idiom 磨杵成針|磨杵成针, to grind an iron bar down to a fine needle (idiom); fig. to persevere in a difficult task / to study diligently

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-4580be0acd10f99c. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

只要功夫深，鐵杵磨成針 只要功夫深，铁杵磨成针 [zhi3 yao4 gong1 fu5 shen1 , tie3 chu3 mo2 cheng2 zhen1] /If you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle./cf idiom 磨杵成針|磨杵成针, to grind an iron bar down to a fine needle (idiom); fig. to persevere in a difficult task/to study diligently/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

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Other forms in these source records: 只要功夫深，鐵杵磨成針

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.