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首脑 (shǒu nǎo) — head of state; leader (of a country or organization); summit (as in 首脑会议)

Definition

首脑 refers to top national leaders — heads of state in politics (often paired with 会议: summit meeting). Unlike 元首 (purely head of state) or 头脑 (brains/intelligence), it emphasizes the person as a political leader.

noun
head of stateleader (of a country or organization)summit (as in 首脑会议)
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 首脑。
    Gè guó shǒu nǎo gòng tóng chū xí le qì hòu biàn huà dà huì.
    Heads of state from various countries jointly attended the climate change conference.
  • 首脑。
    Zhè cì shǒu nǎo huì yì dá chéng le xīn de mào yì xié yì.
    This summit meeting reached a new trade agreement.
  • 首脑。
    Sān wèi shǒu nǎo zài bì mén huì yì zhōng jiāo huàn le yì jiàn.
    Three leaders exchanged views during the closed-door meeting.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

首shǒuhead
脑nǎobrain

首 and 脑 both point to the head, so together they name the chief person.

Characters in this word

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

The shape comes from an old drawing of an animal's head, showing a long mouth and horns; the version with hair became 首.

Open 首 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 腦; 脑 is its simplified writing.

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 巛巛chuānhair
  • 囟囟xìnhead; fontanel

In the traditional form 腦, the older part 匕 was replaced by a flesh part, while 巛 (hair) and 囟 (head; fontanel) stayed. The simplified 脑 is a later abbreviation.

Open 脑 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Government & Politics

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