Chinese word dictionary

争分夺秒

zhēngfēn-duómiǎo · lit. fight minutes, snatch seconds (idiom); a race against time; making every second count

Practice word

Word information

Simplified争分夺秒

Traditional爭分奪秒

Pinyinzhēngfēn-duómiǎo

Part of speechGeneral

HSK 3.07-9

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

争zhēng

to dispute, to fight, to contend, to strive

分fēn

to divide, to allocate; fraction; small unit of time or other quantity

夺duó

to rob, to snatch, to take by force

秒miǎo

a second; a corn kernel; measure word for time

How to learn 争分夺秒

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

分fēn

to divide; to separate; to distribute; to allocate; to distinguish (good and bad); (bound form) branch of (an organization); sub- (as in 分局[fen1 ju2]); fraction; one tenth (of certain units); unit of length equivalent to 0.33 cm; minute (unit of time); minute (angular measurement unit); a point (in sports or games); 0.01 yuan (unit of money)

分钟fēnzhōng

minute

得分défēn

to score a point (in a competition, test etc); score; rating; grade

分开fēnkāi

to separate; to part

部分bùfen

part; portion; piece; Taiwan pr. [bu4fen4]

分数fēnshù

(exam) grade; mark; score; fraction