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专辑 (zhuān jí) — album (music); record; special collection (of articles, broadcasts, etc.)

Definition

专辑 is a published collection centered on one theme or artist — most often a music album, but also a magazine special issue. Use 唱片 for the physical vinyl/CD itself, and 相册 specifically for photo albums.

noun
album (music)recordspecial collection (of articles, broadcasts, etc.)
Measure word · 张

Examples

  • 专辑。
    Wǒ zuì jìn mǎi le yì zhāng tā de zhuān jí.
    I recently bought one of his albums.
  • 专辑。
    Zhè zhāng zhuān jí zài pái háng bǎng shàng pái míng dì yī.
    This album ranks first on the charts.
  • 专辑。
    Zhè fèn zá zhì chū le yī qī guān yú huán bǎo de zhuān jí.
    This magazine released a special issue about environmental protection.

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.

专zhuānspecial
辑jígathered

专 means 'special' and 辑 means 'gathered together', so 专辑 names a special collected set of songs.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 專; 专 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 專 shows 又, a hand, turning 叀, a spindle; this came to mean gathering several things into one.

Open 专 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 輯; 辑 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
車車jū
Sound part声符shēngfú
咠
咠qì輯jí
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 輯 pairs 車 (vehicle) with 咠, which gives the sound; the simplified 辑 is a later abbreviation.

Open 辑 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Music5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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