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中年 (zhōng nián) — middle age

Definition

Middle age — the years of life between youth and 老年 ('old age'). Unlike 年纪, which asks how old a person is, 中年 names a specific life stage.

noun
middle age

Examples

  • 中年。
    Hěn duō rén dào le zhōng nián kāi shǐ duàn liàn.
    Many people start exercising when they reach middle age.
  • 中年，。
    Zài zhōng nián, yào zhù yì jiàn kāng.
    In middle age, you need to pay attention to your health.
  • 中年。
    Tā zhōng nián shí huàn le gōng zuò.
    He changed jobs in middle age.

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.

中zhōngmiddle
年niányear

中 marks the middle, and 年 refers to the years of life.

Characters in this word

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

The original picture showed a flagpole with a drum in the middle, set up in the center of a field.

Open 中 →

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
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4Life Stages & Age

Browse more HSK 4 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.