Chinese word dictionary

倒霉

dǎoméi · to have bad luck; to be out of luck

Practice word

Word information

Simplified倒霉

Traditional倒霉

Pinyindǎoméi

Part of speech形

HSK 3.07-9

HSK 2.05

Character breakdown

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

倒dào

to collapse, to fall over; to lie down

霉méi

mildew, mold, rot

How to learn 倒霉

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.

倒dào

to invert; to place upside down or frontside back; to pour out; to tip out; to dump; inverted; upside down; reversed; to go backward; contrary to what one might expect; but; yet

倒闭dǎobì

to go bankrupt; to close down

倒车dǎochē

to change buses, trains etc

倒是dàoshì

contrary to what one might expect; actually; contrariwise; why don't you

打倒dǎdǎo

to overthrow; to knock down; Down with ... !

倒塌dǎotā

to collapse (of building); to topple over