言不由衷 — Chinese idiom
言不由衷
yán bù yóu zhōng
Meaning
- to say sth without meaning it ; to speak tongue in cheek
- saying one thing but meaning sth different
Character by character
- 言yánwords, speech; to speak, to say
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 由yóucause, reason; from
- 衷zhōngsincere, heartfelt
Idioms sharing a character
- 一言一动 yī yán yī dòng
- 一言一行 yī yán yī xíng
- 一言不合 yī yán bù hé
- 一言不发 yī yán bù fā
- 一言九鼎 yī yán jiǔ dǐng
- 一言千金 yī yán qiān jīn
- 一言为定 yī yán wéi dìng
- 一言为重 yī yán wéi zhòng
- 一言难尽 yī yán nán jìn
- 三言两句 sān yán liǎng jù
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.