高楼 (gāo lóu) — tall building, high-rise building

Definition

noun

tall buildinghigh-rise building

Measure word · 座

高楼。
Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu hěn duō gāo lóu.
There are many tall buildings in this city.
高楼。
Tā zhù zài yí zuò gāo lóu lǐ.
He lives in a tall building.
高楼。
Nà xiē gāo lóu fēi cháng gāo.
Those tall buildings are very high.

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.

楼lóubuilding

高 (high) and 楼 (building) describe a building that rises high.

Characters in this word

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

高 was drawn as a tall building.

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 樓; 楼 is its simplified writing.

木婁樓

Meaning part形符xíngfú

木木mùtree

Sound part声符shēngfú

婁

婁lóu樓lóu

Same sound today

The traditional form 樓 pairs 木 (tree) with 婁 as its sound part; the simplified 楼 is a later shorthand.

Appears in