大致 (dà zhì) — (adverb) roughly, approximately; (adjective) ge…

Definition

A neutral, written-style "roughly, approximately" or "general" — used like 大概, but sounds more formal and is less common in casual speech than 差不多.

adverb

roughlyapproximately

adjective

generalrough

大致。
Wǒ dà zhì kàn le yí xià zhè fèn bào gào.
I roughly looked over this report.
大致。
Zhè liǎng běn shū de nèi róng dà zhì xiāng tóng.
The content of these two books is roughly the same.
大致。
Qǐng nín xiān jiè shào yí xià dà zhì qíng kuàng.
Please first give us a general description of the situation.

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dàbroadly

致zhìgeneral condition

大 contributes broadly and 致 contributes general condition, so the whole means roughly.

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.

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

至攵致

Meaning part形符xíngfú

攵Written in full as攴pū

Sound part声符shēngfú

至

Same sound today

致 pairs 至, used for its sound, with 攵, written in full as 攴.

Appears in