Idiom
stand on the shoulders of giants
Meaning
To build on the achievements of others before one.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We stand on the shoulders of giants to learn new things.”
“Scientists often stand on the shoulders of giants by using research from the past to make new discoveries.”
“By acknowledging that we stand on the shoulders of giants, we honor the brilliant thinkers who paved the way for our modern understanding of the world.”
Examples
simple
“We stand on the shoulders of giants to learn new things.”
contextual
“Scientists often stand on the shoulders of giants by using research from the past to make new discoveries.”
complex
“By acknowledging that we stand on the shoulders of giants, we honor the brilliant thinkers who paved the way for our modern understanding of the world.”
Origin
Extracted from dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants. Often attributed to Isaac Newton (see quotations), but in other forms already in use earlier.
Key words
Related idioms
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