刀光剑影 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. flash of knives and swords
• fig. intense conflict

Character by character

• 刀dāoknife; old coin; measure
• 光guānglight; bright, brilliant; only, merely
• 剑jiànsword, dagger, saber
• 影yǐngshadow; image, reflection; photograph

Idioms sharing a character

• 一刀两断 yī dāo liǎng duàn
• 借刀杀人 jiè dāo shā rén
• 两肋插刀 liǎng lèi chā dāo
• 两面三刀 liǎng miàn sān dāo
• 刀山火海 dāo shān huǒ hǎi
• 刀枪不入 dāo qiāng bù rù
• 刀枪剑戟 dāo qiāng jiàn jǐ
• 刀锯斧钺 dāo jù fǔ yuè
• 千刀万剐 qiān dāo wàn guǎ
• 单刀直入 dān dāo zhí rù

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