English · Idiom Candidate

dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

One who discovers something new based on others' achievements

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người khám phá ra điều mới dựa trên thành tựu của người khác

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a small person on large people's shoulders

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The young scientist was a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants, building upon the groundbreaking work of her predecessors

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Arms

Common questions

What does “dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants” mean?

One who discovers something new based on others' achievements Literally: a small person on large people's shoulders

Is “dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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