天然 (tiān rán) — natural (as opposed to artificial or man-made) | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Describes things that exist in or come from nature, not made by humans (天然资源, 天然成分). 天生 refers to qualities a person is born with, not objects.

adjective

natural (as opposed to artificial or man-made)

Examples

天然，。
Zhè tiáo hé shì tiān rán xíng chéng de, bú shì rén gōng wā de.
This river formed naturally; it wasn't dug by humans.
天然。
Tā xǐ huan yòng tiān rán chéng fèn de huà zhuāng pǐn.
She likes to use cosmetics with natural ingredients.
天然。
Zhè ge dì qū de tiān rán zī yuán fēi cháng fēng fù.
The natural resources in this region are very abundant.

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 names nature and 然 means 'be so'; together they say something is just as nature is, i.e. natural.

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.

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

火火huǒfire

Sound part声符shēngfú

肰

肰rán然rán

Same sound today

然 is made from 肰, which gives the sound, and 火, which shows fire, matching the old sense 'to burn'.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Environment & Ecology

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