明白 (míng bai) means to understand; clear; sensible.
Dictionary reading and meanings#
míng bai: clear; obvious; unequivocal; sensible; reasonable; to understand; to realize
Reading the pinyin#
In míng bai, a syllable without a tone mark represents the dictionary’s neutral-tone reading. The source dictionary uses the number 5 for that category; this page uses unmarked syllables in its tone-mark display. Open University’s tone guide illustrates the unmarked convention.
The spelling above follows the dictionary headword reading. It is a citation form, rather than a recording of a particular speaker. A written gloss is not a complete rule for choosing a word in every sentence.
Does this word always have one English translation?#
Use the listed sense that fits the sentence. Where the dictionary gives more than one reading or meaning, they are shown above rather than collapsed into a single universal translation.
Sources and lexical-data licence#
Lexical data adapted from CC-CEDICT contributors, distributed by MDBG, release dated 23 October 2026. English glosses have been shortened or reformatted here. This adapted lexical data is provided under CC BY-SA 4.0. The explanatory prose is newly written.