Word.ws English Dictionary

learning to walk before one can run

learning to walk before one can run is the present participle and gerund of learn to walk before one can run.

Meaning of learn to walk before one can run

Verb

learn to walk before one can run (third-person singular simple present learns to walk before one can run, present participle learning to walk before one can run, simple past and past participle learned to walk before one could run or learnt to walk before one could run)

  1. (idiomatic) To learn how to perform simple tasks before one can perform a more complicated task.
    • Optimal performances can also be used as platforms for achieving greater things in performance later. You might think of optimal performance as learning to walk before you can run or learning the arias before the whole role or running many ten-kilometer races before you try to run a marathon.1998, Alma Thomas, Power Performance for Singers: Transcending the Barriers, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 29
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see learn, walk, before, run.

Questions about learning to walk before one can run

What is learning to walk before one can run the present participle and gerund of?
Learning to walk before one can run is the present participle and gerund of learn to walk before one can run.

Words near learning to walk before one can run in the dictionary

  1. learning society
  2. learning streak
  3. learning streaks
  4. learning the hard way
  5. learning the ropes
  6. learning to walk before one can run
  7. learning-disabled
  8. learning-knight
  9. learning-knights
  10. learningless
  11. learnings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: learning to walk before one can run (page history and authors); learn to walk before one can run (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “learning to walk before one can run.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/learning_to_walk_before_one_can_run. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.