五千五百 (wǔ qiān wǔ bǎi) — five thousand five hundred

Definition

numeral
five thousand five hundred

Examples

  • 五千五百。
    Zhè tái diàn nǎo de jià gé shì wǔ qiān wǔ bǎi yuán.
    The price of this computer is 5,500 yuan.
  • 五千五百。
    Jīn nián xué xiào zhāo shōu le wǔ qiān wǔ bǎi míng xué shēng.
    The school enrolled 5,500 students this year.
  • 五千五百。
    Cóng běi jīng dào lā sà de jù lí dà yuē shì wǔ qiān wǔ bǎi gōng lǐ.
    The distance from Beijing to Lhasa is about 5,500 kilometers.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

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.

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

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yī
Sound part声符shēngfú
白
白bái百bǎi
Same sound today

百 combines 一, which carries the number meaning, with 白, which provides the sound.

Open 百 →

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