振振有词

振振有詞

zhènzhènyǒucí

idiom #73,391

Meanings

1 to argue self-righteously
2 to speak with seeming justification
3 to be full of plausible-sounding arguments

Characters

to shake; rousing; emphatic

emphatic (reduplicated)

words; arguments

Examples

他迟到了还振振有词地为自己辩解。

Tā chídào le hái zhèn zhèn yǒu cí de wèi zìjǐ biànjiě.

Even though he was late, he defended himself with self-righteous confidence.

面对证据,被告居然振振有词地否认一切。

Miànduì zhèngjù, bèigào jūrán zhèn zhèn yǒu cí de fǒurèn yíqiè.

Faced with the evidence, the defendant astonishingly denied everything with great self-assurance.

他振振有词,仿佛错的是别人。

Tā zhèn zhèn yǒu cí, fǎngfú cuò de shì biérén.

He argued so forcefully it was as if someone else were in the wrong.

Tips

usage

Almost always negative — the speaker sounds reasonable but is actually in the wrong. Don't use to describe a genuinely just argument; for that use 理直气壮.

mistakes

The character is 词 (cí, 'words'), not 辞. Also commonly misread as zhēn zhēn — the correct reading is zhèn zhèn (4th tone).

Stroke Order

振 zhèn

有 yǒu

词 cí