DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

難以啟齒

简难以启齿 · 繁難以啟齒

Mandarin · pinyin nán yǐ qǐ chǐ

to be too embarrassed to mention sth (idiom)
to find it hard to speak about sth

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Characters in this entry

難: Look up this written character
以: yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
啟: Look up this written character
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

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–3 · nan2 yi3 qi3 chi3

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

難以啟齒 · find source passages ↗ · 难以启齿 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

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

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