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一万五 (yí wàn wǔ) — fifteen thousand (usually in informal contexts, especially for money)

Definition

Shorthand for 15,000 — common in spoken Chinese and especially for prices and salaries, where the full 一万五千 feels formal.

numeral
fifteen thousand (usually in informal contexts, especially for money)

Examples

  • 一万五。
    Tā měi gè yuè de gōng zī dà gài yí wàn wǔ.
    His monthly salary is about 15,000.
  • 一万五。
    Zhè tào fáng zi de jià gé shì yí wàn wǔ yì píng fāng mǐ.
    The price of this apartment is 15,000 per square meter.
  • 一万五。
    Zhè ge xiǎo chéng shì de rén kǒu bú dào yí wàn wǔ.
    The population of this small city is less than 15,000.

Origin

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 →
Appears in
Money & CurrencyNumbers & Counting

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