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大楼 (dà lóu) — tall building; mansion

Definition

noun
tall buildingmansion
Measure word · 幢

Examples

  • 大楼。
    Zhè zuò dà lóu yǒu wǔ shí céng.
    This tall building has fifty floors.
  • 大楼。
    Tā zài dà lóu lǐ shàng bān.
    He works in a tall building.
  • 大楼。
    Nà dòng dà lóu shì xīn jiàn de.
    That tall building is newly built.

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dàbig
楼lóubuilding

大 means big or tall and 楼 means building, so a tall building.

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 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 樓; 楼 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
木木mùtree
Sound part声符shēngfú
婁
婁lóu樓lóu
Same sound today

The traditional form 樓 pairs 木 (tree) with 婁 as its sound part; the simplified 楼 is a later shorthand.

Open 楼 →
Appears in
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