八十万 (bā shí wàn) — eighty thousand (800,000)

Definition

Numeral meaning 'eighty thousand' (800,000): 八 (8) + 十 (10) + 万 (10,000) = 800,000. 万 is the Chinese 'ten-thousand' unit, not 'thousand' — multiply by 10,000, not 1,000.

numeral
eighty thousand (800,000)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 八十万。
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu bā shí wàn rén kǒu.
    This city has 800,000 people.
  • 八十万。
    Tā měi nián shōu rù chāo guò bā shí wàn.
    His annual income exceeds 800,000.
  • 八十万。
    Nà tào fáng zi mài le bā shí wàn rén mín bì.
    That house sold for 800,000 RMB.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

八 shows two bent lines, indicating the original meaning 'to divide'; it was later used for 'eight' because the words sounded alike.

Open 八 →

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

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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 →

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