祸事 (huò shì) — disaster, calamity, mishap

Definition

noun

disastercalamitymishap

Easily confused

祸事。
Zhè chǎng hóng shuǐ gěi tā jiā dài lái le jù dà de huò shì.
This flood brought a huge disaster to his family.
，祸事。
Tā yīn wèi jiǔ hòu jià chē, rě shàng le huò shì.
He got into trouble because of drunk driving.
祸事。
Zhè cì jīng jì wēi jī shì yì chǎng nán yǐ bì miǎn de huò shì.
This economic crisis is a disaster that's hard to avoid.

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.

祸huòdisaster

'祸' and '事' together mean an event that is a disaster or mishap.

Characters in this word

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 禍; 祸 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

示示shìsacrifice

Sound part声符shēngfú

咼

咼wāi禍huò

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The simplified 祸 is an abbreviation of traditional 禍, which pairs 示 (sacrifice) with 咼 to show pronunciation.

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

In 事, 又 is a hand and 中 is a flagpole with a drum; holding a flag in hand depicts performing a job.