Chinese word dictionary

斩草除根

zhǎn cǎo chú gēn · to cut weeds and eliminate the roots (idiom); to destroy root and branch; to eliminate completely

Practice word

Word information

Simplified斩草除根

Traditional斬草除根

Pinyinzhǎn cǎo chú gēn

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

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

斩zhǎn

to chop, to cut, to sever; to behead

草cǎo

grass, herbs; straw, thatch

除chú

to eliminate, to remove, to wipe out

根gēn

root, basis, foundation

How to learn 斩草除根

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.

草cǎo

grass; straw; manuscript; draft (of a document); careless; rough; CL:棵[ke1],撮[zuo3],株[zhu1],根[gen1]; variant of 草[cao3]

草地cǎodì

lawn; meadow; sod; turf; CL:片[pian4]

除了chúle

apart from; besides; in addition to (used to exclude, as in 除了他，誰也沒來|除了他，谁也没来[chu2 le5 ta1 , shei2 ye3 mei2 lai2] "apart from him, nobody came", or to include, as in 除了英語，他也會法語|除了英语，他也会法语[chu2 le5 Ying1 yu3 , ta1 ye3 hui4 Fa3 yu3] "in addition to English, he also knows French"); (used to introduce one of two habitual alternatives in the pattern 除了[chu2 le5] + A + 就是[jiu4 shi4] + B, "either A or B")

根据gēnjù

according to; based on; basis; foundation; CL:個|个[ge4]

除夕chúxī

lunar New Year's Eve

根gēn

root; basis; classifier for long slender objects, e.g. cigarettes, guitar strings; CL:條|条[tiao2]; radical (chemistry)