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争先恐后

zhēng xiān kǒng hòu

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 level 7-9 4-character word Traditional 爭先恐後

争先恐后 (zhēng xiān kǒng hòu) means "striving to be first and fearing to be last (idiom); outdoing one another". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 争先恐后 means

1. idiomto compete to be first; to scramble to get ahead; to rush forward for fear of falling behind

The characters in 争先恐后

• 争zhēngto strive for; to vie for; to argue or debate
• 先xiānbeforehand; first; earlier; at first; originally; for the time being; for now
• 恐kǒngafraid; frightened; to fear
• 后hòuempress; queen; (archaic) monarch

Where 争先恐后 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · zhèng–zhēng (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read zhēng xiān kǒng hòu correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.