# let a thousand flowers bloom

> English word · Proverb

## Definitions
1. One should not interfere with promising developments in their early stages.

## Etymology
A calque of Chinese 百花齊放，百家爭鳴 /百花齐放，百家争鸣 (bǎihuā-qífàng, bǎijiā-zhēngmíng) ("let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend"), from various speeches made by Mao Zedong during the 1950s.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom