动辄

動輒

dòngzhé

adverb #80,439

Meanings

1 at every turn
2 all too readily
3 often as much as

Characters

to move; at the slightest move

then; every time

Examples

HSK 5

这种名牌包动辄上万元，普通人根本买不起。

Zhè zhǒng míngpái bāo dòngzhé shàngwàn yuán, pǔtōngrén gēnběn mǎibuqǐ.

Designer bags like these easily cost ten thousand yuan or more, far beyond what ordinary people can afford.

HSK 7-9

他动辄就发火，同事都怕他。

Tā dòngzhé jiù fāhuǒ, tóngshì dōu pà tā.

He loses his temper at the slightest thing, and his colleagues are all afraid of him.

Tips

usage

Literary but common in news writing. Before a verb it means 'at the slightest excuse' and is usually critical: 动辄发火 'to fly off the handle', 动辄得咎 'to be blamed whatever one does'. Before an amount it says the figure easily runs that high: 动辄上亿美元 'often hundreds of millions of dollars'. The spoken equivalent is 动不动.

Stroke Order

动 dòng

辄 zhé