啼笑皆非 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• lit. not to know whether to laugh or cry
• between laughter and tears

Character by character

• 啼títo weep, to whimper; to howl; to crow
• 笑xiàoto smile, to laugh; to giggle; to snicker
• 皆jiēall, every, everybody
• 非fēinot, negative, non-; to oppose

Idioms sharing a character

• 啼饥号寒 tí jī háo hán
• 杜鹃啼血 dù juān tí xuè
• 付之一笑 fù zhī yī xiào
• 似笑非笑 sì xiào fēi xiào
• 哄堂大笑 hōng táng dà xiào
• 哭笑不得 kū xiào bù dé
• 喜笑颜开 xǐ xiào yán kāi
• 嫣然一笑 yān rán yī xiào
• 嬉笑怒骂 xī xiào nù mà
• 捧腹大笑 pěng fù dà xiào

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