万丈高楼平地起

towering buildings are built up from the ground (idiom) / great oaks from little acorns grow

used in 万俟[Mo4 qi2]

surname Wan

ten thousand / a great number

lit. ten thousand fathoms / fig. extremely high or deep / lofty / bottomless

measure of length, ten Chinese feet (3.3 m) / to measure / husband / polite appellation for an older male

surname Gao

high / tall / above average / loud / your (honorific)

high building / multistory building / skyscraper / CL:座[zuo4]

surname Lou

house with more than 1 story / storied building / floor / CL:層|层[ceng2],座[zuo4],棟|栋[dong4]

surname Ping

flat / level / equal / to tie (make the same score) / to draw (score) / calm / peaceful / abbr. for 平聲|平声[ping2 sheng1]

to level the land / level ground / plain

-ly / structural particle: used before a verb or adjective, linking it to preceding modifying adverbial adjunct

earth / ground / field / place / land / CL:片[pian4]

to rise / to raise / to get up / to set out / to start / to appear / to launch / to initiate (action) / to draft / to establish / to get (from a depot or counter) / verb suffix, to start / starting from (a time, place, price etc) / classifier for occurrences or unpredictable events: case, instance / classifier for groups: batch, group