Phrase guide

little strokes fell great oaks

proverb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

proverb

Meaning 1

Small but persistent efforts can lead to big results.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

8 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 水滴石穿 (shuǐdīshíchuān) — proverb
  • Danish: mange bække små gør en stor å — proverb
  • Finnish: jokainen pisara muovaa kiveä — proverb
  • German: steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein — proverb
  • Hungarian: lassú víz partot mos — proverb
  • Japanese: 石の上にも三年 (ishi no ue nimo sannen) — proverb
  • Japanese: 水滴石を穿つ (suiteki ishi o ugatsu) — proverb
  • Tamil: அடி மேல் அடி அடித்தால் அம்மியும் நகரும் (aṭi mēl aṭi aṭittāl ammiyum nakarum) — proverb