伯克利 (Bó kè lì) — Berkeley (city in California or University of C… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

Berkeley (city in California or University of California, Berkeley)

Examples

伯克利，。
Tā bì yè yú Bó kè lì, xiàn zài zài yì jiā kē jì gōng sī gōng zuò.
He graduated from Berkeley and now works at a tech company.
伯克利，。
Bó kè lì De xiào yuán fēi cháng měi lì, xī yǐn le shì jiè gè dì de xué shēng.
Berkeley's campus is very beautiful, attracting students from all over the world.
伯克利。
Wǒ jì huà míng nián qù Bó kè lì cān jiā yí gè xué shù huì yì.
I plan to go to Berkeley next year to attend an academic conference.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

伯克利 spells Berkeley; the characters carry no meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

人人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

白

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

伯 pairs 人 (person) with 白, which gives its sound.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

禾禾hégrain
刀刀dāoknife

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

Appears in

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