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 ㄉㄧㄢㄉㄠˇ

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: běnmòdiāndǎo
  - Zhuyin: ㄅㄣˇ ㄇㄛˋ ㄉㄧㄢㄉㄠˇ
  - 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

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 Hyōgai	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.)