Read Edit View history Discussion 咬文嚼字 yǎowénjiáozì to be punctilious about wording Origin Definitions Defs Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents 咬文嚼字 yǎowénjiáozì to be punctilious about wording to weigh every word; to polish one's writing or speech to an excessive or pedantic degree to be pedantic to be overly literal or dogmatic in interpreting a text, often missing the broader spirit; to be inflexible to show off one's learning to use obscure words or an affected manner of speaking to flaunt one's erudition Frequency Written text 0.361 per million Cross-References Synonym 句斟字酌 jùzhēnzìzhuó掉书袋 diàoshūdài Sources Frequency data BCC Corpus (BLCU)
咬文嚼字 yǎowénjiáozì to be punctilious about wording to weigh every word; to polish one's writing or speech to an excessive or pedantic degree to be pedantic to be overly literal or dogmatic in interpreting a text, often missing the broader spirit; to be inflexible to show off one's learning to use obscure words or an affected manner of speaking to flaunt one's erudition Frequency Written text 0.361 per million Cross-References Synonym 句斟字酌 jùzhēnzìzhuó掉书袋 diàoshūdài Sources Frequency data BCC Corpus (BLCU)