一字不苟 — “To be meticulously precise with every word”

一字不苟 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to be meticulously precise with every word”. To weigh every word carefully and avoid any sloppiness, especially in writing. Literally, “Not careless with a single word”.

Frequency

一字不苟 Pronunciation and Pinyin

一字不苟 Character Breakdown

Stroke Order

Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Meaning
一	yī	1	one, a, single, whole
字	zì	6	character, word, writing
不	bù	4	not
苟	gǒu	9	barely manage or if

Example Sentence with 一字不苟

他在撰写重要的学术论文时，总是坚持一字不苟，力求文字精准无误，以确保观点的严谨性。

When writing important academic papers, he always insists on being meticulously precise with every word, striving for accurate and error-free text to ensure the rigor of his arguments.

Origin and Story of 一字不苟

During the Tang Dynasty, Gao Shi, the Inspector of Liangzhe, once wrote a poem on Qingfeng Ridge: 'The autumn wind on the towering ridge is already cool, cranes flutter, scattering pine dew to wet clothes. The moon sets in the village ahead, a river of water flows, a monk opens a bamboo room amidst the emerald haze.'

Later, when he passed Qingfeng Ridge again, he pondered changing the character '一' (yī, meaning 'one') in his poem to '半' (bàn, meaning 'half').

A local monk then informed him that Luo Binwang from Yiwu had already made that exact change for him long ago, recognizing the poetic nuance.