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千家万户 (qiān jiā wàn hù) — every family; every household

Definition

Idiom meaning 'every family, every household' — used as a set phrase. 家家户户 is a more colloquial, everyday way to say the same thing.

phrase
every familyevery household

Examples

  • ，千家万户。
    Chūn jié qián, qiān jiā wàn hù dōu huì dà sǎo chú.
    Before Spring Festival, every family does a big cleaning.
  • 千家万户。
    Zhè ge hǎo xiāo xi hěn kuài jiù chuán biàn le qiān jiā wàn hù.
    This good news quickly spread to every household.
  • 千家万户。
    Zhèng fǔ de mù biāo shì ràng qiān jiā wàn hù guò shàng gèng hǎo de shēng huó.
    The government's goal is to let every family live a better life.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

千家thousand families
千qiānthousand家jiāfamily
偏正Modifier + head
万户ten thousand households
万wànten thousand户hùhousehold
偏正Modifier + head

千 thousand 家 families and 万 ten thousand 户 households together mean every family.

Characters in this word

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
一一yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →

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
宀宀miánroof
Sound part声符shēngfú
𢑓
𢑓𢑓家jiā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The early drawing of 家 showed a roof 宀 over a male-pig sign 𢑓 that gave the pronunciation; the lower part later changed shape.

Open 家 →

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 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 戶; 户 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 戶 is a picture of half of a gate. The simplified 户 is a later shorthand, so its shape should not be read as the original parts.

Open 户 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6

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