直言不讳 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to speak bluntly
• not to mince words

Character by character

• 直zhístraight, vertical; candid, direct, frank
• 言yánwords, speech; to speak, to say
• 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
• 讳huìtaboo; to shun, to conceal, to avoid mentioning

Idioms sharing a character

• 单刀直入 dān dāo zhí rù
• 嘴快心直 zuǐ kuài xīn zhí
• 平铺直叙 píng pū zhí xù
• 径情直遂 jìng qíng zhí suì
• 心直口快 xīn zhí kǒu kuài
• 急转直下 jí zhuǎn zhí xià
• 是非曲直 shì fēi qū zhí
• 横冲直撞 héng chōng zhí zhuàng
• 理直气壮 lǐ zhí qì zhuàng
• 直情径行 zhí qíng jìng xíng

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