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惠灵顿 (huì líng dùn) — Wellington (capital of New Zealand)

Definition

noun
Wellington (capital of New Zealand)

Examples

  • 惠灵顿。
    huì líng dùn Shì xīn xī lán de shǒu dū.
    Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.
  • 惠灵顿。
    Wǒ qù nián xià tiān qù huì líng dùn lǚ yóu le.
    I traveled to Wellington last summer.
  • 惠灵顿。
    huì líng dùn De gǎng kǒu fēi cháng piào liang.
    The harbor of Wellington is very beautiful.

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.

惠huì
灵líng
顿dùn

The characters carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the foreign name Wellington.

Sound-only characters

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

惠 combines 叀, which gives the sound, with 心 (heart).

Open 惠 →

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 靈; 灵 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
玉玉yùjade
Sound part声符shēngfú
霝
霝líng靈líng
Same sound today

This note describes the traditional form 靈, not the simplified 灵: 霝 gives the sound, and 玉 (jade) is the meaning part.

Open 灵 →

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 頓; 顿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yè
Sound part声符shēngfú
屯
屯tún頓dùn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頓 combines 屯, drawn as a kneeling person's head, with 頁, and expresses a bow or kowtow. The simplified 顿 replaces 頁 with 页.

Open 顿 →
Appears in
City & Urban

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