什麼事

简 什么事 · 繁 什麼事
Mandarin · pinyin shén me shì

Meanings

  1. What's up?; Is something the matter?
  2. (coll.) (used in rhetorical questions of the form 關 guān + {person} + 什麼事 shén me shì "what business is it of {person}'s?; what's it to {person}?")
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

什
shén · file of ten soldiers; mixed, miscellaneous
麼
me · interrogative final particle; insignificant, small, tiny
事
shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
么
me · interrogative particle; small
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–5–4 · shen2 me5 shi4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links2source references
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
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.

什麼事 · find source passages ↗ · 什么事 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

什麼事 · shen2 me5 shi4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 6,038
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record什麼事 什么事 [shen2 me5 shi4] /What's up?; Is something the matter?/(coll.) (used in rhetorical questions of the form 關|关[guan1] + {person} + 什麼事|什么事[shen2 me5 shi4] "what business is it of {person}'s?; what's it to {person}?")/