天明 (tiān míng) — daybreak; dawn | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

daybreakdawn

Examples

天明。
Wǒ men děng dào tiān míng cái chū fā.
We waited until daybreak to set off.
天明，。
tiān míng Shí fēn, niǎo r kāi shǐ chàng gē.
At dawn, the birds begin to sing.
天明。
Tā měi tiān tiān míng jiù qǐ chuáng pǎo bù.
He gets up and goes running every day at daybreak.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

天 is the sky and 明 is bright, showing the sky becoming bright at daybreak.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

丁

丁dīng天tiān

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape comes from a frontal standing man 大 with a head; 天 pairs 大 with 丁 for sound.

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

日月明

日日rìsun
月月yuèmoon

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Appears in

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