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登顶 (dēng dǐng) — to reach the top (of a mountain, competition, ranking, etc.); to summit

Definition

Verb meaning to reach the top — literally climbing a summit or figuratively topping a ranking/competition. The first character is the action; 山顶 is the place you arrive at, and 高峰/首脑 mark the peak itself rather than the act of reaching it.

verb
to reach the top (of a mountain, competition, ranking, etc.)to summit

Examples

  • 登顶。
    Tā men jīn tiān chéng gōng dēng dǐng le.
    They successfully reached the top today.
  • 登顶，。
    Tā zài zhè cì bǐ sài zhōng dēng dǐng, ná le guàn jūn.
    She reached the top in this competition and won the championship.
  • ，登顶。
    Jīng guò duō nián nǔ lì, tā zhōng yú dēng dǐng le háng yè zuì gāo zhí wèi.
    After years of hard work, he finally reached the top position in the industry.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

登dēngclimb
顶dǐngtop

“登” (climb) and “顶” (top) combine to mean reaching the summit.

Characters in this word

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

  • 癶癶bōleft and right feet
  • 豆豆dòupictogrammic of raised object; stepping stone

登 pairs 癶, left and right feet, with 豆, a raised object or stepping stone; its older form also showed two hands at the bottom, which later dropped.

Open 登 →

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 頂; 顶 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
頁頁yèhead
Sound part声符shēngfú
丁
丁dīng頂dǐng
Same sound today

The traditional form 頂 pairs 頁, meaning head, with 丁, which supplies the sound; the simplified 顶 is a later abbreviation.

Open 顶 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9

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