要 么

yào medictionary entry

or / either one or the other

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-c21418b1c8b055d6. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

要麼要么 [yao4 me5] /or/either one or the other/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 要麼

要
yāo
(bound form) to demand / to coerce
yào
to want / to need / to ask for / will / shall / about to / need to / should / if (same as 要是[yào shi]) / (bound form) important
么
yāo
youngest / most junior / tiny / one (unambiguous spoken form when spelling out numbers, esp. on telephone or in military) / one or ace on dice or dominoes / variant of 吆[yāo], to shout
má
exclamatory final particle
ma
interrogative final particle
me
suffix, used to form interrogative 什麼|什么[shén me], what?, indefinite 這麼|这么[zhè me] thus, etc
Yāo
surname Yao

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.