双打 (shuāng dǎ) — doubles (in sports, e.g. tennis, table tennis, badminton)

Definition

A sports term for a match or event played with two players on a team (tennis, badminton, table tennis). The opposite of singles (单打).

noun
doubles (in sports, e.g. tennis, table tennis, badminton)
Measure word · 场

Examples

  • 双打。
    Tā cān jiā le wǎng qiú shuāng dǎ bǐ sài.
    He participated in a tennis doubles match.
  • 双打。
    Yǔ máo qiú shuāng dǎ xū yào liǎng gè rén pèi hé.
    Badminton doubles requires two people to cooperate.
  • 双打。
    Wǒ men yíng dé le pīng pāng qiú shuāng dǎ guàn jūn.
    We won the table tennis doubles championship.

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.

双shuāngdouble
打dǎplay

双 means two or double, and 打 is playing, so the word names a doubles game.

Characters in this word

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

双 is made of two 又 parts side by side. Repeating 又 gives the sense of a pair.

Open 双 →

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
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
丁
丁dīng打dǎ
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

打 uses 扌, a hand, to show an action done with the hand, and 丁 to give the sound.

Open 打 →

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