万不得已 — Chinese idiom
万不得已
wàn bù dé yǐ
Traditional: 萬不得已
Meaning
- only when absolutely essential ; as a last resort
Character by character
- 万wànten thousand; innumerable
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 得déto obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable, proper; r
- 已yǐalready; finished; to stop; then, afterwards
Idioms sharing a character
- 一本万利 yī běn wàn lì
- 以一驭万 yǐ yī yù wàn
- 以防万一 yǐ fáng wàn yī
- 光芒万丈 guāng máng wàn zhàng
- 千刀万剐 qiān dāo wàn guǎ
- 千千万万 qiān qiān wàn wàn
- 千家万户 qiān jiā wàn hù
- 千差万别 qiān chā wàn bié
- 千恩万谢 qiān ēn wàn xiè
- 千真万确 qiān zhēn wàn què
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.