Example sentences
děng等wǒ我wǔ五fēn分zhōng钟。
Wait five minutes for me.
hái还yǒu有shí十fēn分zhōng钟。
Ten minutes left.
About this word
分 is "to divide, a fraction" and 钟 is "clock" (the word first meant a bell, which is why 闹钟 is an alarm clock and 钟表 means clocks and watches). A minute is a division of the clock, and the same 分 shows up in 三点五分, 3:05. 分钟 never stands alone: it needs a number in front, as in 五分钟 or 等十分钟. The matching hour word is 小时, literally "small 时", where 时 once named the old two-hour period and 小 was added to mark the shorter unit.
The story behind the character
分
A 刀 (knife) cutting 八 (which means to separate). Cutting what's already apart, one more time. Xu Shen wrote 分, 别也. Using a knife to divide, that's 分.
钟
钟 is 金 (metal) with 童 giving the sound. The traditional character was 鐘, a bronze bell, and Xu Shen defined it as 樂鐘也, a bell for music. Bells are how hours got announced, so the bell turned into the clock, and a minute became a division of it. Simplification also folded in 鍾, an older word for a wine vessel. Two characters, one 钟.