十日 (shí rì) — the 10th day of a month; (formal) ten days

Definition

A formal or literary way to say 'the 10th day of a month' (e.g. 三月十日) or 'ten days' as a duration. The everyday spoken form is 十号 (for dates).

noun
the 10th day of a month(formal) ten days
Easily confused

Examples

  • 十日。
    Wǒ de shēng rì shì shí yuè shí rì.
    My birthday is October 10th.
  • 十日。
    Huì yì zài sān yuè shí rì jǔ xíng.
    The meeting will be held on March 10th.
  • 十日。
    Tā lí kāi le shí rì zhī jiǔ.
    He left for as long as ten days.

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
日rìday

In 十日, 十 gives ten and 日 gives day, marking the tenth day or a ten-day span.

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 →

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

日 originally drew the sun. A mark was added inside to tell it apart from similar square shapes.

Open 日 →

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