显而易见

• Pinyin: xiǎn ér yì jiàn
• Hanzi breakdown: 显 = 日 + 业 (sun + industry — something brought into the open); 而 = conjunction; 易 = 日 + 勿 (sun + flowing — easy, changing); 见 = 目 + 人 (eye + person — to see)

Meaning

Obvious; self-evident; plain to see. Describes something so clear that it requires no explanation or proof — evident to anyone who looks.

A four-character idiom (成语) used widely in formal writing, academic discourse, and argumentation to introduce a point presented as requiring no further justification. Can sometimes be used rhetorically — asserting that something is obvious when the speaker knows it is not universally accepted. Often appears at the start of a sentence: 显而易见，……

Examples

1. 从实验数据来看，两组之间的差异显而易见，无需进行复杂的统计检验即可得出初步结论。 From the experimental data, the difference between the two groups is obvious; you can draw a preliminary conclusion without complex statistical tests.
2. 这项政策的受益者主要集中在高收入群体，这一点显而易见，引发了广泛的社会讨论。 It’s clear that the main beneficiaries of this policy are concentrated among high-income groups, which has sparked broad public discussion.
3. 显而易见，单纯依靠技术手段无法彻底解决信息安全领域所面临的深层次制度性问题。 Obviously, relying on technical measures alone cannot fully resolve the deep, systemic institutional problems facing information security.

Usage Guide

Context: academic writing, argumentation, journalism, analysis

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 从近十年贸易数据看，显而易见，单边关税短期能护住部分产业，长期却会扭曲全球供应链并压低消费者购买力。(From trade data over the past decade, it is clearly evident that unilateral tariffs can protect some industries in the short term, but in the long run they distort global supply chains and weaken consumer purchasing power.)
• 分析这场公共卫生危机时，显而易见，早期预警失灵和信息链断裂才是初期应对迟缓的结构性根源。(When analysing this public health crisis, it is plainly evident that the failure of early warning and breaks in the information chain were the structural roots of the slow initial response.)

Don't Say

• 显而易见 in informal conversation — it sounds overly stiff and lecturing in everyday speech; use 很明显 or 一眼就能看出来 instead; also avoid using it to assert contested points as obvious, as this can come across as dismissive or intellectually dishonest

Origin & History

显 (visible, apparent) + 而 (and, connecting) + 易 (easy) + 见 (to see) — literally 'apparent and easy to see'

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal