耸人听闻 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to sensationalize ; deliberate exaggeration to scare people

Character by character

• 耸sǒngto excite, to urge; to raise; to shrug; lofty, tow
• 人rénman, person; people
• 听tīngto hear, to listen; to understand; to obey
• 闻wénnews; to hear, to smell; to make known

Idioms sharing a character

• 危言耸听 wēi yán sǒng tīng
• 高耸入云 gāo sǒng rù yún
• 一鸣惊人 yī míng jīng rén
• 三人成虎 sān rén chéng hǔ
• 不可告人 bù kě gào rén
• 不恤人言 bù xù rén yán
• 不甘人后 bù gān rén hòu
• 不甘后人 bù gān hòu rén
• 不近人情 bù jìn rén qíng
• 乘人不备 chéng rén bù bèi

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