HSK 4 · Verbs

究竟 jiūjìng “to go to the bottom of a matter” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 究竟 means

  1. to go to the bottom of a matter
  2. after all
  3. when all is said and done
  4. (in an interrogative sentence) finally
  5. outcome
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • result

How to say 究竟

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale究jiū1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale竟jìng4th tone, falling

究竟 in a sentence

  1. 究竟谁要负责？

    Jiūjìng shéi yào fùzé?

    Who exactly is responsible?

    Sentence #5617298 from Tatoeba

  2. 那里究竟发生了什么事？

    Nàli jiūjìng fāshēng le shénme shì?

    What exactly happened there?

    Sentence #818164 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 究竟 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 究 (jiū) with each of its parts in a different colour
究jiūafter all
  • 穴cave · xuéMeaning part
  • 九nine · jiǔSound part

穴 hints at the meaning (cave); 九 (jiǔ) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiū.

The character 竟 (jìng) with each of its parts in a different colour
竟jìngunexpectedly
  • 音sound · yīn
  • 儿legs · ér

How to write 究竟

究 7 strokes · 竟 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 究竟

Words with 究

研究yánjiū · to research讲究jiǎngjiu · to be particular about追究zhuījiū · to investigate终究zhōngjiū · after all

Words with 竟

竟然jìngrán · unexpectedly毕竟bìjìng · after all

More words: Common Verbs

节约jiéyuē · to economise结果jiéguǒ · result进行jìnxíng · to advance禁止jìnzhǐ · to prohibit举jǔ · to lift举办jǔbàn · to conduct开玩笑kāiwánxiào · to play a joke肯定kěndìng · to be certain

FAQs

究竟 (jiūjìng) means “to go to the bottom of a matter” or “after all”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it jiūjìng: jiū with a 1st tone, then jìng with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 究竟 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jiujing with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 究竟 from the suggestions. Typing jiujing into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
究竟 is an HSK 4 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.