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全城 (quán chéng) — the whole city, the entire town

Definition

noun
the whole citythe entire town

Examples

  • 全城。
    quán chéng Dōu zài qìng zhù jié rì.
    The whole city is celebrating the festival.
  • 全城。
    Shuǐ zāi yǐng xiǎng le quán chéng jū mín.
    The flood affected residents across the entire city.
  • 全城。
    quán chéng De jiāo tōng dōu tān huàn le.
    The city's transportation system is completely paralyzed.

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.

全quánwhole
城chéngcity

全 means whole, and 城 means city, so it refers to the whole city.

Characters in this word

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

The shape puts 入 together with 玉 to show a whole piece of jade, so it means complete or whole.

Open 全 →

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
土土tǔsoil
Sound part声符shēngfú
成
成chéng城chéng
Same sound today

城 pairs 土 (soil) with 成 as a sound part, because city walls were originally made of stamped earth.

Open 城 →
Appears in
City & Urban

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