怵目惊心 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. shocks the eye, astonishes the heart ; shocking
• horrible to see
• a ghastly sight
• also written 觸目驚心|触目惊心

Character by character

• 怵chùfearful, apprehensive; timid, shy
• 目mùeye; to look, to see; division, topic
• 惊jīngto frighten, to startle; surprise, alarm
• 心xīnheart; mind; soul

Idioms sharing a character

• 一目了然 yī mù liǎo rán
• 一目十行 yī mù shí háng
• 一叶障目 yī yè zhàng mù
• 令人瞩目 lìng rén zhǔ mù
• 伤心惨目 shāng xīn cǎn mù
• 剑眉星目 jiàn méi xīng mù
• 反目成仇 fǎn mù chéng chóu
• 名目繁多 míng mù fán duō
• 巧立名目 qiǎo lì míng mù
• 怒目相向 nù mù xiāng xiàng

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.