半信半疑
bàn xìn bàn yí
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Not sure whether to believe something: part of you accepts it and part of you doubts it. Used for your reaction to news, a story or a promise that sounds only half convincing.
Nửa tin nửa ngờ, chưa biết có nên tin hay không. Thường dùng để tả thái độ trước một tin tức, câu chuyện hay lời hứa nghe chưa thật thuyết phục.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 061 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 疑 = nghi; etymology of “bán tín bán nghi” = 半信半疑 · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “bán tín bán nghi” (ban-tin-ban-nghi). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “半信半疑” mean?
Not sure whether to believe something: part of you accepts it and part of you doubts it. Used for your reaction to news, a story or a promise that sounds only half convincing. Literally: half believe, half doubt
Is “半信半疑” formal or informal?
半信半疑 is generally neutral.