独占鳌头 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to come first in triennial palace examinations (refers to the carved stone turtle head in front of the imperial palace, next to which the most successful candidate in the imperial examinations was entitled to stand); to be the champion; to be the very best in any field

Character by character

• 独dúalone, independent, only, single, solitary
• 占zhànto divine; to observe; to versify
• 鳌áohuge sea turtle
• 头tóuhead; chief, boss; first, top

Idioms sharing a character

• 一枝独秀 yī zhī dú xiù
• 匠心独运 jiàng xīn dú yùn
• 单打独斗 dān dǎ dú dòu
• 孤独于世 gū dú yú shì
• 得天独厚 dé tiān dú hòu
• 民贼独夫 mín zéi dú fū
• 独一无二 dú yī wú èr
• 独来独往 dú lái dú wǎng
• 独具匠心 dú jù jiàng xīn
• 独具只眼 dú jù zhī yǎn

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