无情无义 (wú qíng wú yì) — (idiom) cold-hearted and ungrateful; devoid of human feeling and moral duty; ruthless

Definition

A strong chengyu meaning completely heartless and ungrateful — lacking both feeling (情) and moral duty (义). Stronger and more literary than everyday words like 狠心 or 冷酷.

idiom
cold-hearted and ungratefuldevoid of human feeling and moral dutyruthless

Examples

  • 无情无义，。
    Tā zhè ge rén wú qíng wú yì, duì péng you yě xià dé le shǒu.
    He is so cold-hearted and ungrateful — he can even hurt his friends.
  • 无情无义，。
    Zuò chū zhè yàng wú qíng wú yì de shì, dà jiā dōu hěn qì fèn.
    Everyone was furious about such a ruthless and ungrateful act.
  • 无情无义。
    Nǐ bù néng wú qíng wú yì dì pāo qì jiā rén.
    You can't abandon your family so cold-heartedly.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

无情no feeling
无wúwithout情qíngfeeling
动宾Verb + object
无义no duty
无wúwithout义yìduty
动宾Verb + object

无 means without, 情 means feeling, and 义 means duty, giving without feeling and without duty.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
青
青qīng情qíng
Same sound today

情 shows 心 (heart) beside 青, which gives the sound. The heart part points to feelings and inner states.

Open 情 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 義; 义 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
羊羊yáng
Sound part声符shēngfú
我
我wǒ義yì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 義 has 我 giving the sound and 羊 meaning good or auspicious; the simplified 义 is a later abbreviation.

Open 义 →

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