有始无终 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to start but not finish ; to fail to carry things through
• lack of sticking power
• short attention span

Character by character

• 有yǒuto have, to own, to possess; to exist
• 始shǐto begin, to start; beginning
• 无wúno, not; lacking, -less
• 终zhōngend; finally, in the end

Idioms sharing a character

• 一无所有 yī wú suǒ yǒu
• 三生有幸 sān shēng yǒu xìng
• 互通有无 hù tōng yǒu wú
• 井井有条 jǐng jǐng yǒu tiáo
• 井然有序 jǐng rán yǒu xù
• 别有用心 bié yǒu yòng xīn
• 前所未有 qián suǒ wèi yǒu
• 化为乌有 huà wéi wū yǒu
• 另有企图 lìng yǒu qǐ tú
• 各有千秋 gè yǒu qiān qiū

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