一 言 不 发

yī yán bù fādictionary entry

to not say a word (idiom)

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-17a4b34e9dccae56. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

一言不發一言不发 [yi1 yan2 bu4 fa1] /to not say a word (idiom)/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 一言不發

一
yī
one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire / whole / all / throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yāo] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
言
yán
words / speech / to say / to talk
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
发
fā
to send out / to show (one's feeling) / to issue / to develop / to make a bundle of money / classifier for gunshots (rounds)
fà
hair / Taiwan pr. [fǎ]

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.