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一万 (yī wàn) — ten thousand

Definition

一万 (yī wàn) means ten thousand — 10,000, not 'one million'. Note the Chinese number scale jumps by 10,000 (万), so 一万 is the unit between 千 (thousand) and 十万 (hundred thousand).

numeral
ten thousand

Examples

  • 一万。
    Zhè ge chéng shì dà yuē yǒu yī wàn rén kǒu.
    This city has approximately ten thousand residents.
  • 一万。
    Tā yí gè yuè néng zhuàn yī wàn kuài qián.
    He can earn ten thousand yuan a month.
  • 一万。
    Zhè chǎng bǐ sài lái le yī wàn duō míng guān zhòng.
    Over ten thousand spectators came to this match.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

一yīone
万wànten thousand

一万 joins 一 (one) and 万 (ten thousand) to name 10,000.

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 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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