一团

一團

yītuán

measure word

Meanings

1 a ball of
2 a lump of
3 a cloud/mass of (fog, mess, mood)

Characters

Examples

她把纸揉成一团。

Tā bǎ zhǐ róu chéng yī tuán.

She crumpled the paper into a ball.

屋里一团漆黑。

Wū lǐ yī tuán qīhēi.

The room was pitch dark.

他心里乱成一团。

Tā xīnlǐ luàn chéng yī tuán.

His thoughts were a tangled mess.

Tips

usage

一团 covers three registers: physical balls (dough, yarn, cotton), diffuse masses (fog, smoke, darkness), and emotional states (一团乱 a mess, 一团和气 all smiles). It implies shapeless roundness, unlike 一块 (chunk) or 一堆 (pile).

Stroke Order

一 yī

团 tuán