北美洲 (běi měi zhōu) — North America | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Literally 'North America.' Pair with 南美洲 ('South America') to refer to the two continents of the Americas.

noun

North America

Examples

北美洲。
běi měi zhōu Yǒu hěn duō dà chéng shì.
North America has many big cities.
北美洲。
Wǒ yǐ hòu xiǎng qù běi měi zhōu lǚ yóu.
I want to travel to North America in the future.
北美洲。
běi měi zhōu De miàn jī bǐ ōu zhōu dà.
North America's area is larger than Europe.

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.

美洲America

美měiAmerica洲zhōucontinent

偏正Modifier + head

北美洲 places 北 'north' with 美 'America' and 洲 'continent' to name North America.

Characters in this word

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

The form 北 shows two people standing back to back. It originally meant 'back'.

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

羊羊yángram or feathers
大大dàperson

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

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

水水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

州

州zhōu洲zhōu

Same sound today

洲 is built from 水 (water) and 州, which gives the sound.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Geography & Landforms

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