外
wàiTraditional: 外
Translation
outside, external, foreign
Word origin
An ideograph combining 夕 (xī, evening) and 卜 (bǔ, divination), said to refer to divination done at an unusual time, hence outside the norm and the sense of outer.
- Origin
- ideograph
- Root
- 夕 (xī, evening) + 卜 (bǔ, divination)
Stroke order
外
Examples
雨。
It is raining outside.
，。
Apart from him, nobody knows.
。
He worked abroad for three years.
。
Please wait outside the door for a moment.
。
This is an unexpected result.
外 (wài) means outside, external, or foreign, and is the opposite of 内 (inside). It combines freely into words such as 外面 (outside) and 外国 (foreign country).
Appears in 3 words
Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 外.
Used in
Stories
(1)Grammar articles
(4)Mandarin Advanced Grammar (C1-C2 / HSK 6+): Chengyu, Classical Remnants, and Register
Mandarin Conjunctions: 虽然…但是, 因为…所以, 如果…就 and the Paired Structures That Join Clauses
The Mandarin Durative 着 (zhe): Marking a State That Continues (门开着, 拿着书, 笑着说)
Mandarin Location and Existence: 在 for Where, 有 for There Is, and the 上/下/里/外 Position Words
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Go to my review queueThis word is part of lesson 36.