HSK 6 · Verbs

颠倒 diāndǎo “to turn upside down” in Chinese

Traditional 顛倒

What 颠倒 means

  1. to turn upside down
  2. to reverse
  3. confused
  4. back to front
  5. deranged
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • crazy

How to say 颠倒

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale颠diān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale倒dǎo3rd tone, dipping

颠倒 in a sentence

  1. 她被他迷得神魂颠倒。

    Tā bèi tā mí de shénhún diāndǎo.

    She’s head over heels for him.

    Sentence #1516218 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 颠倒 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 颠 (diān) with each of its parts in a different colour
颠diāntop
  • 真real · zhēnSound part
  • 页page · xiéMeaning part

页 hints at the meaning (page); 真 (zhēn) hints at the sound. Compare it with diān.

The character 倒 (dǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
倒dǎoto fall; to collapse
  • 亻person form of 人 · rénMeaning part
  • 到to go to · dàoSound part

亻 hints at the meaning (person); 到 (dào) hints at the sound. Compare it with dǎo.

How to write 颠倒

颠 16 strokes · 倒 10 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

颠倒 (diāndǎo) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 颠倒 (diāndǎo). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 颠倒

Words with 颠

颠簸diānbǒ · to jolt

Words with 倒

倒dǎo · to fall摔倒shuāidǎo · to fall over倒霉dǎoméi · to have bad luck倒闭dǎobì · to go bankrupt

More words: Common Verbs

瞪dèng · to stare蹬dēng · to push down with the foot等候děnghòu · to wait得罪dézuì · to offend奠定diàndìng · to establish点缀diǎnzhuì · to decorate吊diào · to hang叼diāo · to hold in the mouth

FAQs

颠倒 (diāndǎo) means “to turn upside down” or “to reverse”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it diāndǎo: diān with a 1st tone, then dǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 颠倒 is written 顛倒. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type diandao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 颠倒 from the suggestions. Typing diandao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
颠倒 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.