千篇一律
qiān piān yī lǜ
all cut to the same pattern
Character by character
千qiān
thousand
thousand
篇piān
pieces
pieces
一yī
one
one
律lǜ
pattern
pattern
Example
这些广告千篇一律，没有新意。
These ads are all the same; there's nothing new.
Tone: negative (criticism).
Usage and origin
Criticism of formulaic writing, design or products.
Learn it in context
This idiom and thousands more are in Learn Chinese with Bao, with audio, pinyin and drills that make them stick.
Start the course free →