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王国 (wáng guó) — kingdom, realm

Definition

A 'kingdom' ruled by a 国王 (king), used literally for monarchies and figuratively for any domain (e.g. 动物王国 'animal kingdom'). 王朝 refers to the ruling dynasty over time, not the realm itself.

noun
kingdomrealm
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 王国。
    Zhè ge wáng guó de guó wáng fēi cháng rén cí.
    The king of this kingdom is very benevolent.
  • 王国，。
    Zài dòng wù wáng guó lǐ, lǎo hǔ bèi chēng wéi sēn lín zhī wáng.
    In the animal kingdom, the tiger is called the king of the forest.
  • 王国。
    Tā jiàn lì le yí gè qiáng dà de wáng guó.
    He established a powerful kingdom.

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.

王wángking
国guócountry

王 means king and 国 means country, so together they denote a kingdom or realm.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 王 comes from a picture of a ritual axe, an object kept near a throne and connected with royal power.

Open 王 →

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 國; 国 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
囗囗wéiclosure
Sound part声符shēngfú
或
或huò國guó
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 國 uses 囗 to show closure and 或 to give the sound.

Open 国 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Government & Politics

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