Home·Korean Idioms

Conduct & Attitude

一石二鳥

일석이조

yī shí èr niǎo

Il-seog-i-jo

한 일

돌 석

두 이

새 조

Character by character

Meaning

Two birds with one stone — two gains from a single act.

Origin

A modern coinage rendering the English idiom into four Chinese characters.

How it is used

Used when one action solves two problems at once.

Hanja一石二鳥
Simplified一石二鸟
Korean reading일석이조
Pinyinyī shí èr niǎo

Frequently asked questions

Q. What does Il-seog-i-jo mean?

一石二鳥 · Two birds with one stone — two gains from a single act.

Q. Where does Il-seog-i-jo come from?

A modern coinage rendering the English idiom into four Chinese characters.

Q. How is Il-seog-i-jo used?

Used when one action solves two problems at once.

Idioms in the same group

The idioms used in Korea mix phrases from the Chinese classics with ones coined in Korea. Where an expression is not used in China, the entry says so.