要犯 (yào fàn) — important criminal, principal offender

Definition

noun

important criminalprincipal offender

Measure word · 名

要犯。
Jǐng fāng zuó wǎn chéng gōng zhuā huò le nà míng yào fàn.
The police successfully captured that important criminal last night.
要犯。
Fǎ tíng duì zhè qǐ àn jiàn de yào fàn jìn xíng le xuān pàn.
The court pronounced a verdict on the principal offender in this case.
要犯。
Zhè wèi yào fàn de luò wǎng ràng dāng dì jū mín sōng le yì kǒu qì.
The arrest of this important criminal brought relief to the local residents.

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.

要yàoimportant

犯fànoffender

要犯 names a 犯 who is 要, an important offender.

Characters in this word

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

要 began as a drawing of a person with both hands pointing to the waist.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

𢎘

𢎘𢎘犯fàn

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

犯 combines 犬 and 𢎘: 犬 gives the meaning, and 𢎘 gives the sound.

Appears in