本末顛倒

Chinese

		root or trunk of a tree and the branches; the fundamental and the incidental	to turn upside-down; to reverse; to be topsy-turvy
trad. (本末顛倒)		本末	顛倒
simp. (本末颠倒)		本末	颠倒
Literally: “to flip the root and branch”.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): běnmòdiāndǎo

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄣˇ ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄧㄢ ㄉㄠˇ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: běnmòdiāndǎo
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄣˇ ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄧㄢ ㄉㄠˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: běnmòdiandǎo
    • Wade–Giles: pên³-mo⁴-tien¹-tao³
    • Yale: běn-mwò-dyān-dǎu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: beenmohdiandao
    • Palladius: бэньмодяньдао (bɛnʹmodjanʹdao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pən²¹⁴⁻²¹ mu̯ɔ⁵¹ ti̯ɛn⁵⁵ tɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

Idiom

本末顛倒

1. putting the cart before the horse

Synonyms

• 本末倒置 (běnmòdàozhì)

Japanese

Kanji in this term
本	末	顛	倒
ほん Grade: 1	まつ Grade: 4	てん Hyōgaiji	とう Grade: S
on’yomi

Alternative spelling
本末顚倒 (kyūjitai)

For pronunciation and definitions of 本末顛倒 – see the following entry.

【本末転倒ほんまつてんとう】 [noun] putting the cart before the horse, failing to properly evaluate relative importances [verb] put the cart before the horse

(This term, 本末顛倒, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)