人群 (rén qún) — crowd | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

人群 is the people gathered together in one place — a physical crowd (street, stadium). 群众 is the abstract 'masses / general public,' often political; 众人 means 'everyone.'

noun

crowd

Measure word · 群

Examples

人群。
Jiē shàng yǒu yí dà qún rén qún.
There is a big crowd on the street.
人群。
Tā chuān guò rén qún zhǎo dào le péng you.
He walked through the crowd and found his friend.
人群。
rén qún Lǐ yǒu rén zài hǎn kǒu hào.
Someone in the crowd is shouting slogans.

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.

人 as person combined with 群 as group names a crowd of people.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

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

君羊群

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

君

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

群 pairs 羊, a sheep, to point to a herd or group, with 君 giving the sound.

Appears in

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