Example sentences
děng等wǒ我yī一xià下。
Wait for me.
tā他děng等dé得bù不nài耐fán烦le了。
He got impatient waiting.
The story behind the character
等
竹 (bamboo) on top, with 寺 below giving the sound. Xu Shen wrote 等, 齊簡也: bamboo slips trimmed and lined up even. Officials sorted documents by matching and levelling them, so 等 came to mean level, equal, ranked. From "of the same rank" it slid over to "wait until things line up," which is the 等 you use every day. 等一下, 等等, 等于.