昙花一现 — Chinese idiom
昙花一现
tán huā yī xiàn
Traditional: 曇花一現
Meaning
- lit. the night-blooming cactus shows once
- flash in the pan
- short-lived
Character by character
- 昙táncloudy, overcast
- 花huāflower, blossom; to spend (time or money)
- 一yīone; a, an; alone
- 现xiànto appear, to manifest; current, now
Idioms sharing a character
- 借花献佛 jiè huā xiàn Fó
- 名花有主 míng huā yǒu zhǔ
- 天花乱坠 tiān huā luàn zhuì
- 奇花异草 qí huā yì cǎo
- 如花似玉 rú huā sì yù
- 寻花问柳 xún huā wèn liǔ
- 心花怒放 xīn huā nù fàng
- 拈花惹草 niān huā rě cǎo
- 摆花架子 bǎi huā jià zi
- 明日黄花 míng rì huáng huā
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.