先发制人 — Chinese idiom
先发制人
xiān fā zhì rén
Traditional: 先發制人
Meaning
- to gain the initiative by striking first; to preempt
Character by character
- 先xiānfirst, former, previous
- 发fāto issue, to dispatch, to send out; hair
- 制zhìsystem; to establish; to manufacture; to overpower
- 人rénman, person; people
Idioms sharing a character
- 一马当先 yī mǎ dāng xiān
- 先来后到 xiān lái hòu dào
- 先入为主 xiān rù wéi zhǔ
- 先斩后奏 xiān zhǎn hòu zòu
- 先睹为快 xiān dǔ wéi kuài
- 先礼后兵 xiān lǐ hòu bīng
- 捷足先登 jié zú xiān dēng
- 敢为人先 gǎn wéi rén xiān
- 未卜先知 wèi bǔ xiān zhī
- 溘先朝露 kè xiān zhāo lù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.