DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

怎麼回事

简怎么回事 · 繁怎麼回事

Mandarin · pinyin zěn me huí shì

what's the matter?
what's going on?
how could that be?
how did that come about?
what's it all about?

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Characters in this entry

怎: zěn · what? why? how?
麼: me · interrogative final particle; insignificant, small, tiny
回: huí · return, turn around; a time
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.

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Mandarin tones

3–5–2–4 · zen3 me5 hui2 shi4

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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.

怎麼回事 · find source passages ↗ · 怎么回事 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zam2 mo1 wui4 si6

Cantonese word readings for 怎麼回事. 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.

intj

What's going on?; What happened?; What's the matter?

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

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