内忧外患 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• internal trouble and outside aggression ; in a mess both domestically and abroad

Character by character

• 内nèiinside
• 忧yōusad, grieving; melancholy, grief
• 外wàiout, outside, external; foreign; in addition
• 患huànsuffering; misfortune; trouble; to suffer

Idioms sharing a character

• 内忧外困 nèi yōu wài kùn
• 外圆内方 wài yuán nèi fāng
• 外宽内忌 wài kuān nèi jì
• 攘外安内 rǎng wài ān nèi
• 色厉内荏 sè lì nèi rěn
• 锋芒内敛 fēng máng nèi liǎn
• 后顾之忧 hòu gù zhī yōu
• 忧心忡忡 yōu xīn chōng chōng
• 排忧解难 pái yōu jiě nàn
• 杞人之忧 Qǐ rén zhī yōu

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