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水火不容

shuǐ huǒ bù róng · literally “water and fire cannot coexist”

Meaning

Two things or people that are fundamentally incompatible.

In a sentence

Those two departments are 水火不容.

Usage note

Stronger than "they disagree" — it implies irreconcilable opposition.

Where you see it in Brain Challenge

This idiom appears in the picture-idiom levels as a picture or number clue. When the clue shows numbers, the digits usually become the first characters of each half of the idiom — that is why so many chengyu start with 一, 三, 五, 七, 九 or 十.

Play a picture-idiom level → · All idioms