什麼

简 什么 · 繁 什麼
Mandarin · pinyin shén me

Meanings

  1. what?
  2. something; anything
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Characters in this entry

什
shén · file of ten soldiers; mixed, miscellaneous
麼
me · interrogative final particle; insignificant, small, tiny
么
me · interrogative particle; small
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–5 · shen2 me5

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Sentences in context

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

什麼 · find source passages ↗ · 什么 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sam6 mo1

Cantonese word readings for 什麼. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

pron

  1. (interrogative) what
  2. something
  3. anything; whatever
  4. (used to express surprise or anger) what
  5. (used before an enumeration) thing like; such as; and so on; and what not

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack