马德拉斯 (Mǎ dé lā sī) — Madras (Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu, India)

Definition

noun
Madras (Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu, India)

Examples

  • 马德拉斯。
    Mǎ dé lā sī Shì yìn dù nán bù de yí gè zhòng yào gǎng kǒu chéng shì.
    Madras is an important port city in southern India.
  • 马德拉斯。
    Tā céng zài Mǎ dé lā sī dà xué gōng dú jīng jì xué.
    He once studied economics at the University of Madras.
  • 马德拉斯。
    Cóng mèng mǎi dào Mǎ dé lā sī de huǒ chē xū yào èr shí duō gè xiǎo shí.
    The train from Mumbai to Madras takes more than twenty hours.

Origin

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.

马mǎ
德dé
拉lā
斯sī

The characters 马德拉斯 spell a foreign place name and carry no separate meanings.

Sound-only characters

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 馬; 马 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 馬 shows a horse with its head facing left, a flowing mane, and two legs standing vertically.

Open 马 →

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
彳彳chìroad
Sound part声符shēngfú
惪
惪dé德dé
Same sound today

德 combines 彳, a road, with 惪, a component meaning virtue that also supplies the sound.

Open 德 →

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
手手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
立
立lì拉lā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

拉 pairs 手 (hand) with 立, a component that supplies the sound.

Open 拉 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 斯 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.