正言厉色 — Chinese idiom
正言厉色
zhèng yán lì sè
Traditional: 正言厲色
Meaning
- solemn in word and countenance ; strict and unsmiling
- also written 正顏厲色|正颜厉色
Character by character
- 正zhèngstraight, right, proper, correct, just, true
- 言yánwords, speech; to speak, to say
- 厉lìwhetstone; to grind, to sharpen, to whet
- 色sècolor, tint, hue, shade; beauty, form; sex
Idioms sharing a character
- 一本正经 yī běn zhèng jīng
- 以正视听 yǐ zhèng shì tīng
- 偏邪不正 piān xié bù zhèng
- 字正腔圆 zì zhèng qiāng yuán
- 就地正法 jiù dì zhèng fǎ
- 扶正压邪 fú zhèng yā xié
- 舍正从邪 shě zhèng cóng xié
- 改邪归正 gǎi xié guī zhèng
- 正中要害 zhèng zhòng yào hài
- 正襟危坐 zhèng jīn wēi zuò
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.