望文生义 — Chinese idiom
望文生义
wàng wén shēng yì
Traditional: 望文生義
Meaning
- lit. view a text and interpret ; to interpret word by word without understanding the meaning
- a far-fetched interpretation
Character by character
- 望wàngto expect, to hope, to look forward to
- 文wénculture, literature, writing
- 生shēnglife, lifetime; birth; growth
- 义yìright conduct, propriety; justice
Idioms sharing a character
- 一望无垠 yī wàng wú yín
- 一望无际 yī wàng wú jì
- 一望而知 yī wàng ér zhī
- 不孚众望 bù fú zhòng wàng
- 不负众望 bù fù zhòng wàng
- 功高望重 gōng gāo wàng zhòng
- 名门望族 míng mén wàng zú
- 喜出望外 xǐ chū wàng wài
- 大喜过望 dà xǐ guò wàng
- 巴高望上 bā gāo wàng shàng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.