冠冕堂皇 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• high-sounding
• dignified
• pompous

Character by character

• 冠guāncap, crown, headgear
• 冕miǎncrown; ceremonial cap
• 堂tánghall, large room; government office; cousins
• 皇huángroyal, imperial; ruler, superior

Idioms sharing a character

• 峨冠博带 é guān bó dài
• 张冠李戴 Zhāng guān Lǐ dài
• 弹冠相庆 tán guān xiāng qìng
• 怒发冲冠 nù fà chōng guān
• 沐猴而冠 mù hóu ér guàn
• 衣冠禽兽 yī guān qín shòu
• 升堂入室 shēng táng rù shì
• 哄堂大笑 hōng táng dà xiào
• 四世同堂 sì shì tóng táng
• 坐不垂堂 zuò bù chuí táng

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