落叶归根 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. a falling leaf returns to the roots
• fig. all things go back to their source eventually
• in old age, an expatriate returns home

Character by character

• 落luòto fall, to drop; surplus, net income
• 叶yèleaf, page; surname
• 归guīto return, to go back; to return to, to revert
• 根gēnroot, basis, foundation

Idioms sharing a character

• 一落千丈 yī luò qiān zhàng
• 七零八落 qī líng bā luò
• 中箭落马 zhòng jiàn luò mǎ
• 光明磊落 guāng míng lěi luò
• 参差错落 cēn cī cuò luò
• 名落孙山 míng luò Sūn Shān
• 告一段落 gào yī duàn luò
• 丧魂落魄 sàng hún luò pò
• 尘埃落定 chén āi luò dìng
• 大起大落 dà qǐ dà luò

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