Dictionary › 食言

食言

shí yán

2-character word

What 食言 means

1. to break one's promise

The characters in 食言

• 食shíto eat; food; animal feed
• 言yánwords; speech; to say

Example sentences

• 他很少食言。
  He seldom breaks his promise.

Words starting with 食言

• 食言而肥shí yán ér féilit. to grow fat eating one's words (idiom); fig. not to live up to one's promises

Sounds the same

Read shí yán, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 食盐edible salt; table salt
• 时延(electronics) delay; latency
• 石盐rock salt

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read shí yán correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.