LookupMandarin · 繁體 · English

ChineseCharactersMeanings inMandarin–English · CC-CEDICTSources ↗

DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

難言之隱

简难言之隐 · 繁難言之隱

Mandarin · pinyin nán yán zhī yǐn

a hidden trouble hard to mention (idiom)
sth too embarrassing to mention
an embarrassing illness

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

難: Look up this written character
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
隱: Look up this written character
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
隐: yǐn · hide, conceal; hidden, secret

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–2–1–3 · nan2 yan2 zhi1 yin3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

naan4 jin4 zi1 jan2

Cantonese word readings for 難言之隱. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

naan4 jin4 zi1 jan2

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) something too embarrassing to mention; an embarrassing illness

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack