stand on the shoulders of giants
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
To build upon or benefit from the work of others who have come before
Xây dựng dựa trên hoặc hưởng lợi từ công việc của những người đi trước
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Examples
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “stand on the shoulders of giants” mean?
To build upon or benefit from the work of others who have come before Literally: physical image of standing on giants' shoulders
Is “stand 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.