Chinese · Idiom Attested

一言九鼎

yī yán jiǔ dǐng

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Said of a person whose word carries great weight: what they say settles the matter and can be relied on. Used as praise for someone influential or true to their promises.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Một lời nặng tựa chín cái đỉnh đồng: lời nói rất có trọng lượng, đã nói ra là có giá trị và đáng tin. Dùng để khen người có uy tín, đã hứa là làm.

Literally: a single word weighing nine cauldrons

Examples

老李说话一言九鼎，答应的事一定做到。Lǎo Lǐ shuōhuà yī yán jiǔ dǐng, dāying de shì yīdìng zuòdào.Old Li's word is his bond: whatever he promises, he does.

Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check

Sources & notes

Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “nhất ngôn cửu đỉnh” (nhat-ngon-cuu-dinh). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.

Equivalents & related

Hán-Việt cognate nhất ngôn cửu đỉnh One word, nine bronze cauldrons — a promise with the weight of the ancient dynastic vessels behind it: what is said once is final and binding. Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “一言九鼎” mean?

Said of a person whose word carries great weight: what they say settles the matter and can be relied on. Used as praise for someone influential or true to their promises. Literally: a single word weighing nine cauldrons

Is “一言九鼎” formal or informal?

一言九鼎 is generally neutral.

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