要命

要命 yàomìng

To kill (incredibly - extremely - dreadful - frightening)

要命 in a sentence HSK 6 yaoming

What 要命 means

  1. To kill (incredibly - extremely - dreadful - frightening)

These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 要命 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 要命 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

要命 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

要
yāo
Want (need - request - must - demand)
命
mìng
Life (lifespan - order - fate)

How to write 要命

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 要命 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

要命 in a sentence

今天热得要命。
Jīntiān rè de yàomìng.
It is dreadfully hot today.
这件事真要命,一时半会儿办不完。
Zhè jiàn shì zhēn yàomìng, yìshí bànhuìr bàn bu wán.
This is a real nuisance; it cannot be finished any time soon.

Every sentence on this site that uses 要命 is collected on the 要命 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 要命

What does 要命 mean in English?

要命 is pronounced yàomìng and means To kill (incredibly - extremely - dreadful - frightening).

How do you pronounce 要命?

要命 is yàomìng in pinyin — written yaoming without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 要命?

要命 is written with 2 characters: 要 (yāo) Want (need - request - must - demand), 命 (mìng) Life (lifespan - order - fate). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 要命 an HSK word?

Yes — 要命 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 要命 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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