周而复始 — Chinese idiom
周而复始
zhōu ér fù shǐ
Traditional: 週而復始
Meaning
- lit. the cycle comes back to the start ; to move in circles
- the wheel comes full circle
Character by character
- 周zhōuZhou dynasty; circumference
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 复fùagain, repeatedly; copy, duplicate; to restore, to
- 始shǐto begin, to start; beginning
Idioms sharing a character
- 周游列国 zhōu yóu liè guó
- 众所周知 zhòng suǒ zhōu zhī
- 一哄而散 yī hōng ér sàn
- 一扫而空 yī sǎo ér kōng
- 一拥而入 yī yōng ér rù
- 一望而知 yī wàng ér zhī
- 一概而论 yī gài ér lùn
- 一炮而红 yī pào ér hóng
- 一蹴而就 yī cù ér jiù
- 一饮而尽 yī yǐn ér jìn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.