一夜间 (yī yè jiān) — overnight, in a single night | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

A noun meaning 'overnight, in a single night,' emphasizing that a big change happened very suddenly in just one night. Functions as a time adverbial — place it before the verb phrase.

noun

overnightin a single night

Examples

，。
Yí yè jiān, zhěng gè chéng shì dōu bèi bái xuě fù gài le.
Overnight, the whole city was covered in white snow.
。
Tā de yì piān wén zhāng yí yè jiān ràng tā chéng le míng rén.
One article of his made him famous overnight.
。
Zhè ge xiǎo zhèn yí yè jiān fā shēng le jù dà de biàn huà.
This small town underwent huge changes overnight.

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.

一夜one night

一yīone夜yènight

偏正Modifier + head

间jiāninterval

一 and 夜 form “one night”, and 间 gives the interval of that night.

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.

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

夕夕xīmoon

Sound part声符shēngfú

亦

亦yì夜yè

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

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