落叶归根 — Chinese idiom
落叶归根
luò yè guī gēn
Traditional: 落葉歸根
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.