说来话长 shuō lái huà cháng

it’s a long story; hard to explain simply

Word data

HSK Not in HSK
Frequency 5440th word

Definitions

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

Characters

Character Meaning
说 shuō HSK 1
to say; to speak; to explain
来 lái HSK 1
to come; to arrive; next
话 huà HSK 1
speech; talk; conversation
长 cháng HSK 2
to grow; to develop; to increase