断章取义 / 斷章取義

duàn​zhāng​qǔ​yì

to quote out of context

To isolate a sentence or passage from its original context and interpret it based on one's own needs, ignoring the original meaning; to garble a statement.

断 (literal) → 断/斷 · duàn · to cut off 章 (literal) → 章 · zhāng · chapter 取 (literal) → 取 · qǔ · to take 义 (literal) → 义/義 · yì · meaning

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM