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一家 (yī jiā) — whole family, entire household; (extended) same family, kin, clan; (figurative) same group, same side, one unit

Definition

In HSK 7, 一家 foregrounds the figurative sense: people treated as 'one unit / same side / same group,' as in standing together in a debate. The literal 'whole family' sense is supported by 一家人.

noun
whole familyentire household(extended) same familykinclan(figurative) same groupsame sideone unit

Examples

  • 。
    Wǒ men yī jiā rén zhōu mò yì qǐ qù gōng yuán.
    Our whole family goes to the park together on weekends.
  • ，一家。
    Zhè ge cūn zi de rén dōu xìng wáng, suàn shì yī jiā.
    The people in this village all have the surname Wang, so they count as one clan.
  • ，一家。
    Zài biàn lùn zhōng, tā men liǎ zhàn chéng le yī jiā.
    In the debate, the two of them took the same side.

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
家jiāfamily

One family together means a whole household or a single group.

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 →

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
宀宀miánroof
Sound part声符shēngfú
𢑓
𢑓𢑓家jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

Open 家 →
Appears in
Family & Kinship5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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