TongTong
Sign in

断头台 (duàn tóu tái) — guillotine

Definition

noun
guillotine
Measure word · 台

Examples

  • ，断头台。
    Fǎ guó dà gé mìng qī jiān, xǔ duō rén zài duàn tóu tái shàng bèi chǔ jué.
    During the French Revolution, many people were executed on the guillotine.
  • 断头台。
    Bó wù guǎn lǐ chén liè zhe yí zuò lì shǐ duàn tóu tái.
    The museum displays a historical guillotine.
  • 。
    Xiǎo shuō zhōng xiáng xì miáo xiě le duàn tóu tái xíng xíng de chǎng jǐng.
    The novel vividly describes the scene of execution by guillotine.

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.

断头cut off a head
断duàncut off头tóuhead
动宾Verb + object
台táiplatform

断头 describes cutting off a head, and 台 is a platform, yielding a head-cutting platform.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 斷; 断 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 斷 uses 𢇍 (to cut) and 斤 (axe) together.

Open 断 →

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 頭; 头 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yèhead
Sound part声符shēngfú
豆
豆dòu頭tóu
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 頭 shows 頁, meaning head, beside 豆 as a sound component; the simplified 头 is a later shorthand.

Open 头 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 臺; 台 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 台 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (窗台, 电视台) it is 臺; in others (台灯, 台球) (台风) it is 檯 or 台 or 颱.

The traditional form 臺 is the 喬 + 室 form; earlier versions combined a sound part with 室, and an old reading saw it as a watch tower.

Open 台 →
Appears in
Crime & Police

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