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哪門子

简哪门子 · 繁哪門子

Mandarin · pinyin nǎ mén zi

(coll.) (emphasizing a rhetorical question) what
what kind
why on earth

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Characters in this entry

哪: nǎ · which? where? how?
門: mén · gate, door, entrance, opening; Kangxi radical 169
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
门: mén · gate, door, entrance, opening

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–2–5 · na3 men2 zi5

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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.

哪門子 · find source passages ↗ · 哪门子 · find source passages ↗

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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

(informal, used in rhetorical questions) what; what kind of; what in the world

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

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