Skip to content
Tenkai
Romaji on
For true beginners
Log in
EN
日本語
Browse
Quiz
Review
Exam
Proverbs & idioms
633 entries
Japanese proverbs (ことわざ), four-character idioms (四字熟語), and idioms — from JMdict.
Proverbs
Four-character idioms
Idioms
Theme:
All themes
Animal
200
Body
319
Nature
259
Food
66
Emotion
130
Money
76
Time
139
Number
633
Color
102
Search
涅槃寂静
ねはんじゃくじょう
enlightenment leads to serenity
清廉潔白
せいれんけっぱく
spotless integrity; absolute honesty; uprightness
渾然一体
こんぜんいったい
in complete harmony
満身創痍
まんしんそうい
having wounds all over one's body; being wounded all over; receiving a drubbing; being subjected to a barrage of criticism
漫言放語
まんげんほうご
saying whatever one feels; speaking at random; making careless remarks; rambling talk
点滴穿石
てんてきせんせき
constant dripping wears away the stone; little strokes fell great oaks; limited strength, when persistently applied, can accomplish great feats
無中生有
ちゅうしょうゆう
Previous
Page 10 / 13
Next
creation out of nothing; making something out of thin air; pure fabrication; "Creating Something from Nothing" (7th of the Thirty-Six Stratagems); making a non-existent thing appear to exist to deceive an enemy
無二無三
むにむさん
in earnest; single-minded; with intense concentration; rushing headlong into; one and only; unique
無念千万
むねんせんばん
being really disappointed; feeling utterly mortified; being deeply vexed
無想無念
むそうむねん
being free from all distracting thoughts; keeping one's mind clear of all worldly thoughts; being free from all ideas and thoughts
無我夢中
むがむちゅう
losing oneself (in); being absorbed (in); forgetting oneself
無為徒食
むいとしょく
idling one's time away
無為無能
むいむのう
idle and incompetent; accomplishing nothing significant nor being capable of doing so; lacking the talent to do anything but idle away one's time
無為自然
むいしぜん
abandoning artifice and just being oneself; doing nothing and taking things as they come
無理算段
むりさんだん
scraping together (a sum of money); raising (a sum of money) by straining one's credit
無知愚昧
むちぐまい
unenlightened; in the darkest ignorance; not knowing from A to B
無知蒙昧
むちもうまい
unenlightened; uneducated; ignorant
無礼千万
ぶれいせんばん
extremely rude (impertinent, impolite)
無私無偏
むしむへん
to think or act fairly without concern for one's own benefit
無間地獄
むけんじごく
the Avici hell (the eighth and most painful of the eight hells); hell of uninterrupted suffering
焦心苦慮
しょうしんくりょ
worrying oneself (about); being anxious (about); fidgeting (about)
特筆大書
とくひつたいしょ
(printed or written in) large letters
狡兎三窟
こうとさんくつ
very shrewd in preparing a means of escape; being very good at escaping danger
独断専行
どくだんせんこう
acting arbitrarily on one's own authority; acting arbitrarily without consultation
独立不羈
どくりつふき
acting according to one's own beliefs, being undisturbed by others
狷介不羈
けんかいふき
stubbornly sticking to one's own convictions; being stubbornly independent
猿猴捉月
えんこうそくげつ
trying to reach above one's station and failing; trying to accomplish something beyond one's abilities and failing; monkey catching (a reflection of) the moon (in the water)
獅子身中
しししんちゅう
treacherous friend; snake in one's bosom; treacherous insider
玩物喪志
がんぶつそうし
forgetting one's serious objectives by becoming engrossed in trivial pursuits; being distracted by trivial objects and losing sight of one's original goal
理路整然
りろせいぜん
logical; cogent; well-reasoned; logically consistent
甘言蜜語
かんげんみつご
honeyed words; flattery
甜言蜜語
てんげんみつご
honeyed words; flattery
生存競争
せいぞんきょうそう
struggle for existence
生老病死
しょうろうびょうし
the four inevitables in human life (birth, aging, sickness, and death)
異体同心
いたいどうしん
being of one mind; acting in one accord; behaving in perfect harmony
異曲同工
いきょくどうこう
different in appearance but essentially the same in content; equal in skills or workmanship but different in style or artistic flavor; the same for all practical purposes
痛快無比
つうかいむひ
very thrilling; extremely delightful; awfully pleasant; intensely satisfying
発菩提心
ほつぼだいしん
deciding to embrace Buddhism; deciding to seek enlightenment; seeking to have religious awakening
白河夜船
しらかわよふね
being fast asleep (and totally unaware of what is going on around one)
百人百様
ひゃくにんひゃくよう
so many men, so many ways; to each one's own; it takes all sorts to make a world
百八煩悩
ひゃくはちぼんのう
the 108 kleshas; the 108 afflictions
百家争鳴
ひゃっかそうめい
let a hundred schools of thought contend
百尺竿頭
ひゃくせきかんとう
the highest state of one's enlightenment; the highest level one can attain
百年河清
ひゃくねんかせい
waiting for one hundred years for the waters of the Yellow River to clear; waiting in vain for an unlikely event; waiting for pigs to fly; when the sky falls, we shall catch larks
百戦百勝
ひゃくせんひゃくしょう
ever-victorious; many successful campaigns; invincibility
百戦錬磨
ひゃくせんれんま
veteran; battle-worn; schooled by adversity in many battles; hard-bitten; rich in experience; very experienced
百折不撓
ひゃくせつふとう
indefatigability; indomitableness
百発百中
ひゃっぱつひゃくちゅう
always hitting the bull's-eye; infallible
百舌勘定
もずかんじょう
splitting the bill so that the others end up paying the whole amount; wheedling the others into paying the whole bill
百花斉放
ひゃっかせいほう
let a hundred flowers blossom; Hundred Flowers campaign