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About this tool
Browse Tamil proverbs with transliteration, literal translation, figurative meaning, a Tamil gloss and English equivalents.
Tamil Palamozhi Explorer is a browsable collection of 30 Tamil proverbs, each shown with an ISO 15919 transliteration, a strictly literal translation, the figurative meaning it actually carries, a short Tamil gloss and the closest English proverb where one exists. A palamozhi is a complete traditional saying quoted without change, which is why the literal and figurative readings are listed separately — in most proverbs they are deliberately far apart. A seeded four-option quiz tests recall from the same set.
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The word-for-word reading is shown separately from the real sense, which is where most mistranslations start.
Each proverb also carries a one-line explanation in Tamil for learners studying in the language.
A matching English proverb is given only when one genuinely matches; entries without one say so.
A palamozhi (பழமொழி) is a traditional Tamil proverb — a complete saying that states a general truth and is quoted unchanged. It differs from a phrase-level idiom, which has to be conjugated into the sentence around it.
It means that small effort repeated long enough will wear down anything, literally 'even stone wears away where ants keep crawling'. It is the Tamil counterpart of 'little strokes fell great oaks'.
Yes — it is the opening line of Tirukkural 616, in the chapter on effort, and it is quoted so often in everyday Tamil that it functions as a proverb in its own right. It says that sustained effort is what produces prosperity.
Proverbs live in speech, so wording shifts between districts and between spoken and written Tamil, and many have longer forms that get shortened in use. The versions here follow the most commonly printed forms found in proverb collections and school readers.