城北 (chéng běi) — (place name) north of the city; the northern part of a town or district; (proper noun) Chengbei, as in a district or area name

Definition

Compound direction noun: 'the north of the city' or 'the northern part of a town/district'. Used like a place name, so it can also refer to a specific district called Chengbei.

noun
(place name) north of the citythe northern part of a town or district(proper noun) Chengbeias in a district or area name

Examples

  • 城北。
    Wǒ cóng chéng běi bān dào chéng nán le.
    I moved from the north part of the city to the south.
  • 城北。
    chéng běi Yǒu yí zuò hěn dà de gōng yuán.
    There is a very large park in the north of the city.
  • 城北。
    chéng běi De fáng jià bǐ qù nián zhǎng le bù shǎo.
    Property prices in Chengbei have risen quite a bit compared to last year.

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.

城chéngcity
北běinorth

城 and 北 combine to mean the northern part of a city.

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
土土tǔsoil
Sound part声符shēngfú
成
成chéng城chéng
Same sound today

城 pairs 土 (soil) with 成 as a sound part, because city walls were originally made of stamped earth.

Open 城 →

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'.

Open 北 →

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