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Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 一事无成

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
一事无成 yī shì - wú chéng - (idiom) to have achieved nothing; to be a total failure; to get nowhere

List Ranking:

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
- 8 12,096 32,353 16,112

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
- one
- single
- a (article)
- as soon as
- entire; whole; all; throughout
- "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1)
- also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
shì- matter
- thing
- item
- work
- affair
- CL:件[jian4],樁|桩[zhuang1],回[hui2]
- used in 南無|南无[na1mo2]
- not to have
- no
- none
- not
- to lack
- un-
- -less
chéng- surname Cheng
- short name for Chengdu 成都[Cheng2du1]
chéng- to succeed
- to finish
- to complete
- to accomplish
- to become
- to turn into
- to be all right
- OK!
- one tenth

Other Words Containing 一事无成

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
一事无成 - 8 12,096 32,353 16,112