二万六千 (èr wàn liù qiān) — twenty-six thousand

Definition

numeral
twenty-six thousand

Examples

  • 二万六千。
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu èr wàn liù qiān rén kǒu.
    This city has a population of twenty-six thousand.
  • 二万六千。
    Tā měi gè yuè zhuàn èr wàn liù qiān kuài qián.
    He earns twenty-six thousand yuan per month.
  • 二万六千。
    Wǒ men gōng sī yǒu èr wàn liù qiān míng yuán gōng.
    Our company has twenty-six thousand employees.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

二 is drawn as two parallel strokes, where the number of strokes shows the amount.

Open 二 →

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 →

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

The shape of 六 may come from a simple drawing of a shed, or from an ancient counting mark.

Open 六 →

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 →

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