不胜枚举

不勝枚舉
bùshèng-méijǔ
idiom #53,762

Meanings

  1. 1 too numerous to count
  2. 2 impossible to list one by one
  3. 3 countless examples

Examples

HSK 2
Zhèyàng de lìzi bùshèng-méijǔ.
Examples like this are too numerous to list.
HSK 3
Tā de chéngjiù bùshèng-méijǔ.
His achievements are countless.
HSK 6
Lìshǐ shàng de yīngxióng rénwù bùshèng-méijǔ.
Heroic figures in history are too numerous to enumerate.

Tips

history
From Song-dynasty scholar Wang Mou's 野客丛书: 似此等语,不可枚举, 'expressions like these cannot be counted one by one.' The idiom kept 枚举 (to enumerate one by one, = measure word for small items) and evolved 不可 into the more literary 不胜 ('cannot bear to').
register
Formal and written, natural in essays, news, speeches. Overwhelmingly used at sentence end as a concluding predicate after a list: 例子好处贡献种类 + 不胜枚举. Spoken equivalent: 太多了数不过来.

Stroke Order

shèng
méi