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大合唱 (dà hé chàng) — chorus (musical piece for a large group of singers); (figurative) a situation where many people express the same opinion in unison

Definition

A noun with two senses: a large choral performance piece, and (figuratively) a unified, loud expression of one opinion by many people — like a 'chorus of protest.'

noun
chorus (musical piece for a large group of singers)(figurative) a situation where many people express the same opinion in unison
Measure word · 首

Examples

  • 大合唱。
    Tā men biǎo yǎn le yì shǒu gé mìng dà hé chàng.
    They performed a revolutionary chorus.
  • 大合唱。
    Zhěng gè shè qū fā chū le fǎn duì de dà hé chàng.
    The entire community voiced a chorus of opposition.
  • 大合唱。
    Zhè chǎng dà hé chàng yóu yì bǎi rén cān jiā.
    This chorus involves a hundred participants.

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.

大dàlarge
合唱sing together
合hétogether唱chàngsing
偏正Modifier + head

合 together and 唱 sing give the idea of chorus, while 大 marks a large group.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

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

合 shows 亼 and 口 arranged as two mouths speaking together.

Open 合 →

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
口口kǒu
Sound part声符shēngfú
昌
昌chāng唱chàng
Same sound today

The 口 part points to the mouth, while 昌 shows how the character is pronounced.

Open 唱 →
Appears in
Music

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