手球 (shǒu qiú) — handball (sport)

Definition

noun
handball (sport)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 手球。
    shǒu qiú Shì yí xiàng hěn yǒu qù de yùn dòng.
    Handball is a very interesting sport.
  • 手球。
    Wǒ men xué xiào de shǒu qiú duì yíng le bǐ sài.
    Our school's handball team won the match.
  • 手球。
    Zuó tiān wǒ kàn le liǎng chǎng shǒu qiú bǐ sài.
    Yesterday I watched two handball matches.

Origin

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.

手shǒuhand
球qiúball

手 is the hand and 球 is a ball, giving a ball game played with the hands.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Open 手 →

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
玉玉yùjade
Sound part声符shēngfú
求
求qiú球qiú
Same sound today

球 is built from 玉, meaning jade, and 求, which gives the sound.

Open 球 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.