废话

• Pinyin: fèi huà
• Hanzi breakdown: 废 = 广 + 发 (abandoned structure — useless, discarded); 话 = 讠+ 舌 (speech + tongue — spoken words)

Meaning

Nonsense; rubbish; pointless talk; superfluous words. Speech that conveys nothing useful or states the obvious.

A colloquial term used to dismiss speech as pointless, obvious, or time-wasting. Can be used dismissively (废话少说 — cut the nonsense) or playfully. Also used as an exclamation meaning 'Obviously!' or 'What a pointless thing to say!'

Examples

1. 他在发言中用了整整十分钟反复阐述所有人都心知肚明的背景情况，与会者普遍认为这些废话严重压缩了讨论实质性议题的宝贵时间。 In his remarks, he spent a full ten minutes repeating background information everyone already knew, and attendees generally felt this nonsense seriously squeezed the precious time available for substantive discussion.
2. 她直截了当地打断了对方冗长的铺垫，说道：'废话少说，直接告诉我你的诉求是什么，我们没有时间在这里兜圈子。 She bluntly cut off the other person’s long-winded preamble and said, “Skip the BS—tell me what you want. We don’t have time to run in circles here.”
3. 所谓的'用户协议'长达数万字，充斥着法律术语和大量废话，实际上没有任何普通用户会真正阅读全文再作出是否同意的决定。 So-called “user agreements” run to tens of thousands of words, packed with legal jargon and a lot of pointless filler; in reality, no ordinary user is going to read the whole thing before deciding whether to agree.

Usage Guide

Context: daily life, workplace, interpersonal, colloquial

Tone: dismissive

Do Say

• 在高效率的工作环境中，冗长的会前寒暄和反复重申已知背景信息的习惯性废话会显著降低团队的整体决策速度和执行效能。(In a high-efficiency work environment, lengthy pre-meeting small talk and the habitual waste of time repeating already-known background information significantly reduces the overall decision-making speed and operational effectiveness of the team.)
• 这份市场分析报告结构松散，充斥着大量描述性废话而缺乏基于数据的实质性洞察，根本无法为管理层的战略决策提供任何有价值的参考依据。(This market analysis report is loosely structured and filled with large amounts of descriptive nonsense while lacking substantive data-based insights, making it completely incapable of providing any valuable reference for management's strategic decision-making.)

Don't Say

• 废话 in formal written contexts — 废话 is strongly colloquial; in formal writing, use 冗余表述 (redundant expressions), 无效信息 (ineffective information), or 赘语 (superfluous words) instead

Origin & History

废 (useless; discarded) + 话 (words; speech) — useless words — pointless talk

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal