需要是發明之母 Save Sign in to save words Simplified: 需要是发明之母 xūyàoshìfāmíngzhīmǔ ㄒㄩ ㄧㄠˋ ㄕˋ ㄈㄚ ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄓ ㄇㄨˇ Necessity is the mother of invention (European proverb). Character by character 需(xū)require 要(yào)want 是(shì)be 發(fā)send out 明(míng)Ming Dynasty 之(zhī)(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的 de) 母(mǔ)mother A Chinese word or character, or English Search Sources CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0 pinyinjs, Apache-2.0