DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
頓
简 顿 · 繁 頓Mandarin · pinyin dùn
Meanings
- to stop
- to pause
- to arrange
- to lay out
- to kowtow
- to stamp (one's foot)
- at once
- classifier for meals, beatings, scoldings etc: time, bout, spell, meal
Characters in this entry
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4 · dun4
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
1character link18same-tone records
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.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.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 41 senses · 2 Cantonese readings
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
deon6 · duk6
Cantonese word readings for 頓. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack
Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
character · Etymology 1
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — to bow (one's head) to the ground, kowtow
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — to stamp (one's foot)
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (dated or Hokkien) to knock, beat, pound
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (Quanzhou and Xiamen Hokkien) to have a trial of strength or skill, have a contest, compete with
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (Hakka) to bump into with one's elbow
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (Hakka) to pound downwards forcefully
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (dated or Hokkien) to set down (an object) heavily
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (literary) to fall down, collapse; (Hokkien, specifically) to fall on one's buttocks
- Denotes motion of force against a surface: — (Hokkien) to stamp, affix (a seal)
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to descend, go down
- (literary) to be ruined, decay
- tired, weary, fatigued, exhausted, strained
- (literary) to abandon, discard
- (literary) to dispel, eliminate
- to shake, jolt
- (dated) to pull, tug; to fling off
- Denotes settling or pause: — (now in compounds) to arrange, settle, place
- Denotes settling or pause: — to place, put
- Denotes settling or pause: — (Mainland China Hokkien) to place somewhere for a short period of time to produce some effect
- Denotes settling or pause: — to pause
- Denotes settling or pause: — (literary) (alt. form 屯) to encamp, station troops
- Denotes settling or pause: — (dated) to stay, linger
- Denotes settling or pause: — (literary) resting station, lodging, inn
- Denotes settling or pause: — (literary) lodging provisions
- Denotes settling or pause: — (calligraphy, painting) press and pause
- Denotes settling or pause: — (prosody) slight pause in reading a sentence
- Denotes settling or pause: — (prosody) metrical foot
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) confused, chaotic
- suddenly, abruptly, all of the sudden
- (literary) at once, simultaneously
- (literary) entirely, all
- (literary) absolutely, completely
- (Buddhism) short for 頓悟／顿悟 (dùnwù, “epiphany”)
- (Buddhism) short for 頓教／顿教 (“sudden teaching”)
- Classifier for meals.
- (Hokkien) meal
- Classifier for beatings, scoldings, etc.: bout
- (～國) A former state of Western Zhou, now between Xiangcheng and Shangshui in Zhoukou, Henan, China
- a surname, Dun
- Used in transcription.
character · Etymology 2
- only used in 冒頓／冒顿 (Mòdú)
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack