心照不宣

xīn zhào bù xuān

a tacit understanding; no need to say it

Character by character

心xīn
hearts

照zhào
understand

不bù
not

宣xuān
announce

他为什么突然辞职，大家心照不宣。

Why he resigned so suddenly was something everyone understood without saying.

Tone: neutral.

Learn this in Lesson 30 · HSK 5–6: 面子、关系与人情 (Face, connections and favours)

A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.