一 丝 不 苟

yī sī bù gǒudictionary entry

not one thread loose (idiom) / strictly according to the rules / meticulous / not one hair out of place

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-771a8fc55081999e. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

一絲不苟 一丝不苟 [yi1 si1 bu4 gou3] /not one thread loose (idiom); strictly according to the rules/meticulous/not one hair out of place/

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

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 一絲不苟

一
yī
one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire / whole / all / throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yāo] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
丝
sī
silk / thread-like thing / (cuisine) shreds or julienne strips / classifier: a trace (of smoke etc), a tiny bit etc
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
苟
gǒu
(literary) if indeed / (bound form) careless / negligent / (bound form) temporarily
Gǒu
surname Gou

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.