說來話長 shuō lái huà cháng

it’s a long story; hard to explain briefly

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency Unknown

Definitions

  1. 1. start explaining and it's a long story (idiom); complicated and not easy to express succinctly

Characters

Character Meaning
說 shuō
to say; to speak; to explain
來 lái
to come; to arrive; next
話 huà
speech; talk; conversation
長 cháng
to grow; to develop; to increase