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重婚 (chóng hūn) — bigamy (the crime of being married to two people); to commit bigamy

Definition

bigamy (the crime of being married to two people)to commit bigamy

Examples

  • 重婚。
    chóng hūn Shì yì zhǒng wéi fǎ xíng wéi.
    Bigamy is an illegal act.
  • 。
    Tā yīn wèi chóng hūn bèi pàn le sān nián tú xíng.
    He was sentenced to three years in prison for bigamy.
  • 重婚，。
    Tā chóng hūn le liǎng cì, bèi fā xiàn le.
    He committed bigamy twice and was discovered.

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.

重zhòngdouble
婚hūnmarriage

重, double, and 婚, marriage, describe being married to two people at once.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
東
東dōng重zhòng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

重 developed from a picture of a man carrying a bag, with 人 for the man and 東 for the bag; a later ground element was folded into the form.

Open 重 →

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
女女nǚ
Sound part声符shēngfú
昏
昏hūn婚hūn
Same sound today

婚 uses 女 (woman) for the meaning and 昏 for the sound hūn.

Open 婚 →
Appears in
Law & JusticeRomance & Marriage

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