生不逢时 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• born at the wrong time ; unlucky (esp. to complain about one's fate)
• born under an unlucky star
• ahead of his time

Character by character

• 生shēnglife, lifetime; birth; growth
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 逢féngto happen to meet; chance meeting, coincidence
• 时shítime, season; period, era, age

Idioms sharing a character

• 一生一世 yī shēng yī shì
• 一线生机 yī xiàn shēng jī
• 七窍生烟 qī qiào shēng yān
• 三生有幸 sān shēng yǒu xìng
• 九死一生 jiǔ sǐ yī shēng
• 了无生趣 liǎo wú shēng qù
• 人生如梦 rén shēng rú mèng
• 人生朝露 rén shēng zhāo lù
• 再生父母 zài shēng fù mǔ
• 出生入死 chū shēng rù sǐ

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