初露头角 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. to first show one's horns ; fig. a first show of emerging talent
• first sign of emerging talent
• budding genius

Character by character

• 初chūbeginning, initial, primary
• 露lùdew; leak; bare, exposed; to reveal, to show
• 头tóuhead; chief, boss; first, top
• 角jiǎoangle, corner; horn, horn-shaped

Idioms sharing a character

• 初出茅庐 chū chū máo lú
• 悔不当初 huǐ bù dāng chū
• 情窦初开 qíng dòu chū kāi
• 人生朝露 rén shēng zhāo lù
• 凶相毕露 xiōng xiàng bì lù
• 危如朝露 wēi rú zhāo lù
• 危若朝露 wēi ruò zhāo lù
• 原形毕露 yuán xíng bì lù
• 崭露头角 zhǎn lù tóu jiǎo
• 朝露溘至 zhāo lù kè zhì

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.