一万四千 (yí wàn sì qiān) — 14,000 (fourteen thousand)

Definition

The number 14,000, written in standard Chinese form (一万 = 10,000 plus 四千 = 4,000). Note: 14,000 is read 'yī wàn sì qiān', not 'yī mǔ' — the row's pinyin is mislabeled.

numeral
14,000 (fourteen thousand)

Examples

  • 一万四千。
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu yí wàn sì qiān rén kǒu.
    This city has 14,000 people.
  • 一万四千。
    Tā měi gè yuè zhuàn yí wàn sì qiān kuài qián.
    He earns 14,000 yuan each month.
  • 一万四千。
    Jīn nián wǒ men xué xiào zhāo le yí wàn sì qiān míng xué shēng.
    Our school enrolled 14,000 students this year.

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.

The form 四 was drawn as a nose breathing out. It later came to be used for the word four.

Open 四 →

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 →

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