一言难尽 yī yán nán jìn

hard to explain; it's a long story

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency 20061st word

Definitions

  1. 1. hard to explain in a few words (idiom); complicated and not easy to express succinctly

Characters

Character Meaning
一 yī HSK 1
one; 1; single
言 yán HSK 4
to say; to talk; speech
难 nán HSK 3
difficult; difficult (to...); difficulty
尽 jìn HSK 4
to the greatest extent; to be within the limits of