Welcome to ChineseFrequencyDictionary.com. Enter a Chinese character or compound Chinese word to lookup. If a valid dictionary entry is found, frequency information will be shown below:

Chinese Character/Word:

Definition(s) for: 为什么

Hanzi Pinyin Definition(s)
为什么 wèi shén me - why?
- for what reason?

List Ranking:

Where rank 1 is most common, and higher numbers are less common.

HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
3 2 86 515 252

Individual Character Breakdown:

Simp Pinyin Eng
wéi- as (in the capacity of)
- to take sth as
- to act as
- to serve as
- to behave as
- to become
- to be
- to do
- by (in the passive voice)
wèi- because of
- for
- to
wéi- variant of 為|为[wei2]
wèi- variant of 為|为[wei4]
shén- what
shí- ten (used in fractions, writing checks etc)
- assorted
- miscellaneous
yāo- surname Yao
yāo- youngest
- most junior
- tiny
- one (unambiguous spoken form when spelling out numbers, esp. on telephone or in military)
- one or ace on dice or dominoes
- variant of 吆[yao1], to shout
- exclamatory final particle
ma- interrogative final particle
me- suffix, used to form interrogative 什麼|什么[shen2 me5], what?, indefinite 這麼|这么[zhe4 me5] thus, etc
me- variant of 麼|么[me5]

Other Words Containing 为什么

Sorted by the 'SUBTLEX-CH' rank because that seems like the most reliable. Words without a SUBTLEX-CH rank are ignored for being too rare.

Word HSK 2 Level (2012) HSK 3 Band (2022) SUBTLEX-CH BeijingUni Global BeijingUni Weibo
为什么 3 2 86 515 252