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目瞪口呆

mù dèng kǒu dāi

HSK 3.0 level 7-9 4-character word

目瞪口呆 (mù dèng kǒu dāi) means "dumbstruck (idiom); stupefied; stunned". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was not on the old six-level HSK list.

What 目瞪口呆 means

1. idiomdumbstruck; stupefied; stunned

The characters in 目瞪口呆

• 目mùeye; (literary) to look; to regard; eye (of a net); mesh
• 瞪dèngto open (one's eyes) wide; to stare at; to glare at
• 口kǒumouth; classifier for things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc)…
• 呆dāifoolish; stupid; expressionless; blank; variant of 待

Example sentences

• 他们惊得目瞪口呆。
  Tāmen jīng de mùdèng-kǒudāi.
  They were left speechless.
• 她48岁怀上了孩子，所有人都目瞪口呆。
  Tā 48 suì huái shàng le háizi, suǒyǒu rén dōu mùdèngkǒudāi.
  Everyone was just flabbergasted that she was able to get pregnant at 48.
• 珍的男朋友一口气把整个巧克力蛋糕吃得一干二净，把珍看得目瞪口呆。
  Zhēn de nánpéngyou yīkǒuqì bǎ zhěnggè qiǎokèlì dàngāo chī de yīgān'èrjìng, bǎ zhēn kàn de mùdèngkǒudāi.
  Jane could not believe it when her date polished off an entire chocolate cake.

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read mù dèng kǒu dāi correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.