字斟句酌

zìzhēn-jùzhuó

idiom #51,873

Meanings

这份声明他字斟句酌，改了好几遍。

Zhè fèn shēngmíng tā zìzhēnjùzhuó, gǎi le hǎojǐ biàn.

He weighed every word of the statement and rewrote it several times.

外交辞令必须字斟句酌。

Wàijiāo cí lìng bìxū zìzhēnjùzhuó.

Diplomatic language has to be phrased with great care.

memory

斟 and 酌 both mean 'to pour (wine) carefully' — together they carry the sense of deliberation. Literally: 'pour each character, measure each phrase.'

字 zì

斟 zhēn

句 jù

酌 zhuó