Chinese

Adverb

到底

1. actually; are or are not; after all
2. finally; in the end; when all is said and done
3. until the end; to the finish

References

• (Min Nan) “Entry #3656”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

Japanese

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) とうてい [tòótéé] (Heiban - [0])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [to̞ːte̞ː]

Adverb

到底 ‎(hiragana とうてい, romaji tōtei)

1. absolutely, (with negative verb) possibly (as in "couldn't possibly"), utterly
   • 1908, 夏目漱石 (Natsume Sōseki), 夢十夜 (Ten nights of dreams),

     とうてい死 (し)にそうには見 (み)えない。

     Tōtei shinisō ni wa mienai.

     It didn't appear possible that [she] was about to die.

References

1. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

• 2002, Ineko Kondō; Fumi Takano; Mary E Althaus; et. al., Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary, Third Edition, Tokyo: Shōgakukan, ISBN 4095102535.