积重难返 — Chinese idiom
积重难返
jī zhòng nán fǎn
Traditional: 積重難返
Meaning
- ingrained habits are hard to overcome ; bad old practices die hard
Character by character
- 积jīto store up, to amass, to accumulate
- 重zhòngheavy, weighty; to double, to repeat
- 难nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
- 返fǎnto restore, to return, to revert to
Idioms sharing a character
- 厚积薄发 hòu jī bó fā
- 厝火积薪 cuò huǒ jī xīn
- 堆积如山 duī jī rú shān
- 积不相能 jī bù xiāng néng
- 积劳成疾 jī láo chéng jí
- 积土成山 jī tǔ chéng shān
- 积少成多 jī shǎo chéng duō
- 积年累月 jī nián lěi yuè
- 积恶余殃 jī è yú yāng
- 积于忽微 jī yú hū wēi
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.