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两千万 (liǎng qiān mò) — 20 million

Definition

A large Chinese numeral meaning 20 million (literally two ten-millions): 2 × 10,000,000. Used for populations, money, and other big quantities.

numeral
20 million

Examples

  • 两千万。
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu liǎng qiān mò rén kǒu.
    This city has 20 million people.
  • 两千万。
    Tā huā le liǎng qiān mò kuài qián mǎi fáng zi.
    He spent 20 million yuan to buy a house.
  • 两千万。
    Gōng sī qù nián zhuàn le liǎng qiān mò lì rùn.
    The company made 20 million in profit last year.

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.

两liǎngtwo
千万ten million
千qiānthousand万wànten thousand
偏正Modifier + head

两 means two and 千万 means ten million, so together they denote twenty million.

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 兩; 两 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 兩 is described as combining 一 and 㒳. The simplified 两 is a later abbreviation.

Open 两 →

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
一一yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →

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 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting

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