十佳 (shí jiā) — top ten (ranking), the ten best selected

Definition

noun
top ten (ranking)the ten best selected

Examples

  • 十佳。
    Tā bèi píng wéi xué xiào shí jiā xué shēng.
    He was rated as one of the school's top ten students.
  • 十佳。
    Zhè zhāng zhuān jí rù xuǎn le nián dù shí jiā jīn qǔ.
    This album was selected among the year's top ten golden songs.
  • 十佳，。
    Gōng sī jīn nián píng chū le shí jiā yuán gōng, měi rén huò dé jiǎng jīn.
    The company selected the top ten employees this year, and each received a bonus.

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.

十shíten
佳jiāexcellent

The number 十 and the quality 佳 combine to name the ten best selected.

Characters in this word

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 →

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rénman; person
Sound part声符shēngfú
圭
圭guī佳jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

佳 combines 人 (person) with 圭, which is used for the sound guī.

Open 佳 →

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