防患未然 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to prevent troubles before the event
• to forestall
• to nip sth in the bud

Character by character

• 防fángto protect, to defend, to guard against
• 患huànsuffering; misfortune; trouble; to suffer
• 未wèinot yet; 8th terrestrial branch
• 然ráncertainly; naturally; suddenly

Idioms sharing a character

• 以防万一 yǐ fáng wàn yī
• 防不胜防 fáng bù shèng fáng
• 防微杜渐 fáng wēi dù jiàn
• 防患未萌 fáng huàn wèi méng
• 内忧外患 nèi yōu wài huàn
• 后患无穷 hòu huàn wú qióng
• 心腹之患 xīn fù zhī huàn
• 患难之交 huàn nàn zhī jiāo
• 有备无患 yǒu bèi wú huàn
• 养痈遗患 yǎng yōng yí huàn

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