美利坚 (Měi lì jiān) — America | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

America

美利坚。
Wǒ duì Měi lì jiān de wén huà fēi cháng gǎn xìng qù.
I am very interested in American culture.
美利坚。
Měi lì jiān Shì yí gè lián bāng zhì guó jiā.
America is a federal republic.
美利坚。
Tā xiě le yì běn guān yú Měi lì jiān lì shǐ de shū.
He wrote a book about the history of America.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters spell America; they do not carry separate meanings here.

Sound-only characters

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

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

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

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

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 堅; 坚 is its simplified writing.

臤土堅

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

臤

臤qiān堅jiān

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

The traditional form 堅 pairs 臤, giving the sound, with 土, earth, giving the sense; the simplified 坚 is a later shorthand.

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