察言观色 — Chinese idiom
察言观色
chá yán guān sè
Traditional: 察言觀色
Meaning
- to weigh up sb's words and observe their facial expression
- to discern what sb thinks from his body language
Character by character
- 察cháto examine, to investigate, to observe
- 言yánwords, speech; to speak, to say
- 观guānto observe, to spectate; appearance, view
- 色sècolor, tint, hue, shade; beauty, form; sex
Idioms sharing a character
- 明察暗访 míng chá àn fǎng
- 一言一动 yī yán yī dòng
- 一言一行 yī yán yī xíng
- 一言不合 yī yán bù hé
- 一言不发 yī yán bù fā
- 一言九鼎 yī yán jiǔ dǐng
- 一言千金 yī yán qiān jīn
- 一言为定 yī yán wéi dìng
- 一言为重 yī yán wéi zhòng
- 一言难尽 yī yán nán jìn
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.