See How Fast You Can Learn Chinese

Try our interactive spaced repetition demo—study your first words in 60 seconds

Interactive demo Takes 60 seconds No sign-up needed

本末倒置

běn mò dào zhì

Sign in to save this word to your study lists.

Definitions

1. lit. to invert root and branch (idiom); fig. confusing cause and effect
2. to stress the incidental over the fundamental
3. to put the cart before the horse

Child Words of 本末倒置

root

to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally

to invert

to invert; to place upside down or frontside back

to install

the whole course of an event from beginning to end

tip