项目(xiàng mù) - project, item, event in Mandarin

项目 (xiàng mù) is the word a Chinese office uses all day: a project, a piece of funded work with a start, a budget and someone's name on it. 做项目, 接项目, 项目经理.

The other half of its life is duller and just as common. A 项目 is any single entry on a list: a line on a form, a test in a medical check, an event at a sports meeting. 田径项目 are the track and field events, 检查项目 are the things the hospital will test.

The trap is the measure word and the order of the characters. It is 一个项目, and 项 alone is a measure word in its own right (一项工作, one piece of work) but 目 never stands in for it. Do not stretch 项目 to cover a school subject either: that is 科目.