王族 (wáng zú) — royal family; members of a royal house

Definition

noun
royal familymembers of a royal house

Examples

  • 王族。
    Gǔ dài wáng zú de chéng yuán yōng yǒu hěn duō tè quán.
    Members of the ancient royal family had many privileges.
  • 王族。
    Zhè wèi zuò jiā xiě le yì běn guān yú wáng zú lì shǐ de xiǎo shuō.
    This writer wrote a novel about the history of the royal house.
  • 王族。
    wáng zú De shuāi luò wǎng wǎng bàn suí zhe guó jiā de dòng dàng.
    The decline of the royal family is often accompanied by national turmoil.

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
族zúclan

王 is king and 族 is clan, so the clan belonging to a king.

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 →

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

族 combines 㫃, a flag, and 矢, an arrow.

Open 族 →

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