DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
難以啟齒
简 难以启齿 · 繁 難以啟齒Mandarin · pinyin nán yǐ qǐ chǐ
Meanings
- to be too embarrassed to mention sth (idiom)
- to find it hard to speak about sth
Characters in this entry
- 難
- Look up this written character
- 以
- yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
- 啟
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- 齒
- Look up this written character
- 难
- nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
- 启
- qǐ · open; begin, commence; explain
- 齿
- chǐ · teeth; gears, cogs; age; simplified form of the Kangxi radical 211
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
2–3–3–3 · nan2 yi3 qi3 chi3
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
4character links
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
naan4 ji5 kai2 ci2
Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
phrase
- (idiomatic) to be too embarrassed to mention something; to find it difficult to speak about something
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack