锦上添花 jǐnshàngtiānhuā

1. (lit.) to add flowers to brocade (idiom)^†
2. (fig.) to make sth good even better; to add an extra (often nonessential) benefit or embellishment^†

† Our own dictionary has no entry for 锦上添花, so these meanings are adapted from CC-CEDICT, published by MDBG and its contributors and based on CEDICT © 1997, 1998 Paul Andrew Denisowski, and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

锦上添花 is written with 4 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

Every sentence on this site that uses 锦上添花 is collected on the 锦上添花 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

What does 锦上添花 mean in English?

锦上添花 is pronounced jǐnshàngtiānhuā and means (lit.) to add flowers to brocade (idiom), (fig.) to make sth good even better; to add an extra (often nonessential) benefit or embellishment †.

How do you pronounce 锦上添花?

锦上添花 is jǐnshàngtiānhuā in pinyin — written jinshangtianhua without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 锦上添花?

锦上添花 is written with 4 characters: 锦 (jǐn) Brocade (embroidered work - splendid), 上 (shàng) Above (on - go up - upper - first), 添 (tiān) Add (increase - replenish), 花 (huā) Flower (fancy - blossom). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

How is 锦上添花 written in traditional Chinese?

錦上添花. The simplified form 锦上添花 is used in mainland China and Singapore; 錦上添花 is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Both are pronounced jǐnshàngtiānhuā.

Is 锦上添花 an HSK word?

Yes — 锦上添花 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.