Questions about understanding the meaning of words, phrases, etc. For in-context meaning, use [meaning-in-context].
Questions tagged [meaning]
1620 questions
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Is there a literal meaning of 对不起?
对不起 is one of the first phrases any student learns.
We learn it as a set phrase, and don't question why it has this meaning.
But we also learn the phrases;
听得懂 - "hear and understand"
听不懂 - "hear but don't understand"
So is there a literal meaning…
Matthew Rudy 马泰
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What's the meaning of 缘分 in English?
I asked a similar question on English Language & Usage site, but no one seems to come up with a good answer for me. I have decided to give our Chinese site a try.
Bonus: how will you describe the idiom 有缘无分?
Terry Li
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What is the difference between 國語 and 普通話?
I am still a beginner, but after 1 year I'm still not sure about the difference. I've been talking with some citizens from China mainland on the Internet, when I mentioned that I'm learning 國語, I seemed to offend people, and it sparked some rows in…
Henry Kingston
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What is the meaning of this expression (落了下乘)?
然而当和尚走上石阶，禅房内却传来一声苍老的叹息：“长捷，虽为杀人事， 亦是菩提心，但若存了杀人念，你便落了下乘。”
“落了下乘”是什么意思呢？我已经百度一下，但是还没明白。词典也无用了。
我知道“落了”有fall, drop的意思，然后“下乘“有”小乘佛教“的意思。但是”落了下乘“的意思不明白。
请你解说我一下。
Wat
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What does 反动 mean?
The dictionary definition of 反动 means reactionary, and in the political sense it can also mean someone who is very conservative, as opposed to progressive.
However, it seems that this word is being used in a far broader sense, and with strongly…
congusbongus
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Another meaning of 同志
Is it true that 同志 has some different meaning? Like gay (as in homosexual) or something? I know that during the 20th century in China and communist Russia it was very common to call people 同志 (товарищ, comrade). So is it wrong to call someone 同志 in…
Denis Kucherov
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What is the meaning of 冒 in 感冒？
I like to know how a word 'works' in a phrase. What did people think when they came up with the phrase 感冒？ A hat/cover on your feelings?? Maybe this 感 means something else?
感 means feel, perceive, emotion
冒 has these meanings, according to…
Gangosa
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What does “作” mean in this context?
I was listening and they said stuff like 大作 and 小作。
My friend thinks it's an adjective and it can be used as so:
一个很作的女孩子。
HiddenPerson
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What does 牛逼 mean? Can anyone define it?
What does 牛逼
mean? Someone gave a presentation on it in my school.
Can someone define it?
iDontKnow
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Difference between 我饿了 and 我很饿?
Someone tried to explain the difference in this answer https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/43/38 saying that 我饿了 means "I became hungry", but I don't see the difference because we don't say I became hungry in English, you are either hungry or you…
going
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Meaning of 差 in 现在差一刻九点?
I have difficulties understanding sentence.
What is meaning of 差 in the following sentence?
我看一下，现在差一刻九点。
Boris Ivanov
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How long will it take when people say 马上?
If someone say 马上, how long will it take?
2 min? 10 min?
马上，汉语词汇，拼音是mǎ shàng，意思是立即。作时间副词，表示时间很短的意思。
马上https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%A9%AC%E4%B8%8A/80352
Dikey
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Did the ancients really think mangoes were garlic like?
Flipping through Endymion Wilkinson's Chinese History: A New Manual I came across the following excerpt:
36 Food & Drink
36.7 Ming-Qing
Mangoes: fansuan 番蒜, mangguo 芒果 (Malay mangga?)
番蒜 is a very funny word to call mangoes. 番蒜 is basically made…
Mou某
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太: Meaning in 灰太狼
灰太狼
灰太狼 (A character in a TV show) is translated in English as "Grey Wolf".
What has happened to the 太, wouldn't 灰狼 be enough to mean "Grey Wolf"?
jsj
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Is 我很对不起你 a unique sentence structure?
I'd never seen or heard this before until I recently watched a TV series and had to ask my wife to explain.
My initial guess was that it meant "I feel sorry for you" when in fact it means something like "I'm very sorry" (in the direction of the…
going
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