龃龉 (jǔ yǔ) — disagreement; discord; conflict (of opinions or interests)

Definition

Formal, literary noun for disagreement or discord between people. Most HSK learners will only meet it in written text; the everyday spoken equivalent is 矛盾 or 分歧.

noun
disagreementdiscordconflict (of opinions or interests)

Examples

  • 龃龉。
    Tā men zhī jiān yì zhí cún zài jǔ yǔ.
    There has always been disagreement between them.
  • 龃龉。
    Zhè jiàn shì dǎo zhì le liǎng rén zhī jiān de jǔ yǔ.
    This matter caused a discord between the two people.
  • 龃龉。
    Jiě jué zhè xiē jǔ yǔ xū yào nài xīn hé gōu tōng.
    Resolving these disagreements requires patience and communication.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

龃jǔ
龉yǔ

The characters 龃 and 龉 carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the word for disagreement.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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