莫名其妙
mò míng qí miào
baffling; for no apparent reason
Character by character
莫mò
no one
no one
名míng
can name
can name
其qí
its
its
妙miào
mystery
mystery
Example
他莫名其妙地发了一通脾气。
He blew up for no apparent reason.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
Two uses: adverbial 'for no reason' (莫名其妙地) and predicate 'baffling' (真莫名其妙).
Learn it in context
This idiom and thousands more are in Learn Chinese with Bao, with audio, pinyin and drills that make them stick.
Start the course free →