威斯敏斯特 (wēi sī mǐn sī tè) — Westminster (place name, e.g. district in London, Westminster Abbey, or the UK parliamentary system)

Definition

noun
Westminster (place name, e.g. district in London, Westminster Abbey, or the UK parliamentary system)

Examples

  • 威斯敏斯特。
    Yīng guó de wēi sī mǐn sī tè shì zhèng zhì zhōng xīn.
    Westminster in Britain is the political center.
  • 威斯敏斯特。
    wēi sī mǐn sī tè Dà jiào táng shì lún dūn zhù míng de lì shǐ jiàn zhù.
    Westminster Abbey is a famous historical building in London.
  • 威斯敏斯特。
    Yóu kè men cān guān le wēi sī mǐn sī tè hé dà běn zhōng.
    The tourists visited Westminster and Big Ben.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

威wēi
斯sī
敏mǐn
斯sī
特tè

The characters 威, 斯, 敏, 斯, 特 carry no meaning here; they spell Westminster.

Sound-only characters

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

威 is made by combining 戌 and 女.

Open 威 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 斯 →

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
攴攴pūhand; action
Sound part声符shēngfú
每
每měi敏mǐn
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

敏 pairs 每, which gives the sound, with 攴, a hand/action part.

Open 敏 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 斯 →

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
牛牛niúox
Sound part声符shēngfú
寺
寺sì特tè
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape combines 牛 (ox) with 寺, which gives the pronunciation; it originally meant a large bull.

Open 特 →

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