万十 (wàn shí) — (archaic) ten thousand, myriad

Definition

万十 (mò) is an archaic numeral for 'ten thousand,' seen only in classical texts — learners will not encounter it in modern Chinese. It functions as a literary variant of 万.

numeral
(archaic) ten thousandmyriad
Easily confused

Examples

  • 万十。
    Cǐ chéng yǒu wàn shí rén.
    This city has ten thousand people.
  • 万十。
    Gǔ shū zhōng cháng yòng wàn shí biǎo shì dà shù.
    Ancient books often use ∼ to represent large numbers.
  • 万十。
    wàn shí Zì zài xiàn dài hěn shǎo shǐ yòng.
    The character ∼ is rarely used in modern times.

Origin

Characters in this word

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 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.