Chinese word dictionary

本末

běn mò · the whole course of an event from beginning to end; ins and outs; the fundamental and the incidental

Practice word

Word information

Simplified本末

Traditional本末

Pinyinběn mò

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.

本běn

root, origin, source; basis

末mò

end, final, last; insignificant

How to learn 本末

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.

本běn

(bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc); (bound form) original; (bound form) inherent; originally; initially; capital; principal; classifier for books, periodicals, files etc

本běn

root; stem; origin; source; this

本子běnzi

book; notebook; Japanese-style self-published comic (esp. an erotic one), aka "dōjinshi"; CL:本[ben3]; edition

笔记本bǐjìběn

notebook (stationery) (CL:本[ben3]); (computing) laptop; notebook (abbr. for 筆記本電腦|笔记本电脑[bi3 ji4 ben3 dian4 nao3])

课本kèběn

textbook; CL:本[ben3]

周末zhōumò

weekend