不法分子 (bù fǎ fèn zǐ) — lawless person; criminal element; offender

Definition

Refers to people who break the law, typically used in formal/official contexts (news, government announcements) rather than everyday speech.

noun
lawless personcriminal elementoffender

Examples

  • 不法分子。
    Jǐng fāng zhèng zài zhuī bǔ zhè xiē bù fǎ fèn zǐ.
    The police are pursuing these lawless elements.
  • 不法分子。
    Zhèng fǔ yán lì dǎ jī bù fǎ fèn zǐ de wéi fǎ xíng wéi.
    The government cracks down hard on the illegal acts of lawless elements.
  • ，不法分子。
    Shè huì zhì xù xū yào dà jiā gòng tóng wéi hù, jué bù róng rěn bù fǎ fèn zǐ.
    Social order needs everyone's joint maintenance; lawless elements will never be tolerated.

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.

不法illegal
不bùnot法fǎlaw
偏正Modifier + head
分子element
分fēnpart子zǐsuffix
后缀Suffix

不法 means illegal and 分子 means element, together giving a lawless person.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

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
氵Written in full as水shuǐwater
廌廌zhìa type of antelope or caprid
Sound part声符shēngfú
盍
盍hé法fǎ
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

法's older form combined 氵 (water) and 廌 (a type of antelope or caprid), with 盍 as a sound part; later 廌 was dropped.

Open 法 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

分 pairs 八 (to separate) with 刀 (knife), showing something cut apart with a knife.

Open 分 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

子 is drawn as a baby with a large head, arms stretched out, and legs wrapped in a blanket.

Open 子 →

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