一丝不苟 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• not one thread loose ; strictly according to the rules
• meticulous
• not one hair out of place

Character by character

• 一yīone; a, an; alone
• 丝sīsilk, fine thread; wire; strings
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 苟gǒucareless, frivolous, illicit; but, if only

Idioms sharing a character

• 一丁不识 yī dīng bù shí
• 一丘之貉 yī qiū zhī hé
• 一之为甚 yī zhī wéi shèn
• 一干二净 yī gān èr jìng
• 一了百了 yī liǎo bǎi liǎo
• 一事无成 yī shì wú chéng
• 一五一十 yī wǔ yī shí
• 一以贯之 yī yǐ guàn zhī
• 一元复始 yī yuán fù shǐ
• 一刀两断 yī dāo liǎng duàn

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