语无伦次

語無倫次
yǔwú-lúncì
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 incoherent speech
  2. 2 to talk without rhyme or reason
  3. 3 rambling and disorganized

Examples

HSK 3
Tā jǐnzhāng de yǔwú-lúncì.
He was so nervous that he started rambling incoherently.
HSK 3
Hē duō le yǐhòu, tā shuōhuà kāishǐ yǔwú-lúncì.
After drinking too much, his speech became incoherent.
HSK 3
Zhè piān wénzhāng yǔwú-lúncì, ràng rén kàn bu dǒng.
This article is so disjointed that it's impossible to follow.

Tips

history
Traced to a Song commentary on poetry in 《苕溪渔隐丛话》, where ancient regulated verse was said to seem 无伦次 but with meaning still strung together like beads - originally a compliment about hidden coherence, later flipped to mean plainly disordered.
memory
伦次 means 'sequence / proper order'. Literally 'words have no sequence' - picture someone whose sentences tumble out of order.

Stroke Order

lún