难于登天 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• harder than climbing to heaven

Character by character

• 难nánhard, difficult, arduous; unable
• 于yúat, in, on; to, from; alas!
• 登dēngto rise, to mount, to board, to climb
• 天tiānsky, heaven; god, celestial

Idioms sharing a character

• 一木难支 yī mù nán zhī
• 一言难尽 yī yán nán jìn
• 人心难测 rén xīn nán cè
• 劫数难逃 jié shù nán táo
• 勉为其难 miǎn wéi qí nán
• 千载难逢 qiān zǎi nán féng
• 千金难买 qiān jīn nán mǎi
• 善财难舍 shàn cái nán shě
• 在所难免 zài suǒ nán miǎn
• 坐立难安 zuò lì nán ān

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