逆耳之言 — Chinese idiom
逆耳之言
nì ěr zhī yán
Meaning
- speech that grates on the ear ; bitter truths
- home truths (that one does not want to hear)
Character by character
- 逆nìto disobey, to rebel; traitor, rebel
- 耳ěrear; to hear, to hear of; handle
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of following ph
- 言yánwords, speech; to speak, to say
Idioms sharing a character
- 倒行逆施 dào xíng nì shī
- 忠言逆耳 zhōng yán nì ěr
- 逆来顺受 nì lái shùn shòu
- 逆水行舟 nì shuǐ xíng zhōu
- 逆行倒施 nì xíng dào shī
- 违天逆理 wéi tiān nì lǐ
- 不堪入耳 bù kān rù ěr
- 俯首帖耳 fǔ shǒu tiē ěr
- 充耳不闻 chōng ěr bù wén
- 如雷贯耳 rú léi guàn ěr
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.