怎么得了 / 怎麼得了

zěn​me​dé​liǎo

what a mess

Used to express that a situation is serious or terrible, meaning "how can this be?" or "what is to be done?"

怎么 (literal) → 怎么/怎麼 · zěn​me · how 得了 (literal) → 得了 · dé​liǎo · terrible

Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

created sense May 20, 2026, 07:57 PM