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一万五千 (yī wàn wǔ qiān) — fifteen thousand

Definition

numeral
fifteen thousand

Examples

  • 一万五千。
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu yī wàn wǔ qiān rén kǒu.
    This city has a population of fifteen thousand.
  • 一万五千。
    Tā huā le yī wàn wǔ qiān kuài qián mǎi zhè tái diàn nǎo.
    He spent fifteen thousand yuan on this computer.
  • 一万五千。
    Cóng xué xiào dào huǒ chē zhàn dà yuē yī wàn wǔ qiān mǐ.
    It's about fifteen thousand meters from the school to the train station.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

一万
一yīone万wànten thousand
偏正Modifier + head
五千
五wǔfive千qiānthousand
偏正Modifier + head

一万 and 五千 are added together, giving fifteen thousand.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

一 is drawn as one horizontal stroke, marking the number one.

Open 一 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萬; 万 is its simplified writing.

For 万, the form 萬 was originally a picture of a scorpion, later borrowed for its sound to write 'ten thousand'; the scorpion picture is unrelated to that number.

Open 万 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
一一yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting

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