一 言 九 鼎

yī yán jiǔ dǐngdictionary entry

one word worth nine sacred tripods (idiom) / words of enormous weight

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-a4203c44a61ed4b8. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

一言九鼎一言九鼎 [yi1 yan2 jiu3 ding3] /one word worth nine sacred tripods (idiom); words of enormous weight/

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.

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
言
yán
words / speech / to say / to talk
九
jiǔ
nine / 9
鼎
dǐng
ancient cooking cauldron with two looped handles and three or four legs / pot (dialect) / to enter upon a period of (classical) / Kangxi radical 206 / one of the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.