Dictionary › 明白

明白

míng bai

Old HSK 3 HSK 3.0 level 3 2-character word

明白 (míng bai) means "to understand; clear". It is an HSK 3.0 level 3 word, and was HSK 3 in the old six-level list.

What 明白 means

1. clear; obvious; unequivocal
2. sensible; reasonable
3. to understand; to realize

The characters in 明白

• 明míngbright; opposite: dark 暗; (of meaning) clear
• 白báiwhite; snowy; pure

Example sentences

• 明白。
  I understand.
• 不明白。
  I don't understand.
• 明白了。
  I got it.
• 我明白。
  I get it.
• 我不明白。
  I don't get it.
• 你不明白。
  You don't understand.

Words containing 明白

• 弄明白nòng míng baito figure out how to do something
• 放着明白装糊涂fàng zhe míng bai zhuāng hú tuto pretend not to know (idiom)
• 揣着明白装糊涂chuāi zhe míng bai zhuāng hú tuto pretend to not know; to play dumb

Where 明白 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of Cognitive & Communication Verbs (HSK 3), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 3 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read míng bai correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.