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一百万 (yì bǎi wàn) — one million

Definition

A large round number meaning one million (1,000,000). In Chinese, large numbers are grouped by four digits and read as 万 and 亿 rather than thousand and million, so one million is 100万 — the underlying unit is 万.

numeral
one million

Examples

  • 一百万。
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu yì bǎi wàn rén kǒu.
    This city has one million people.
  • 一百万。
    Tā huā le yì bǎi wàn mǎi zhè dòng fáng zi.
    He spent one million to buy this house.
  • 一百万。
    Cǎi piào jiǎng jīn shì yì bǎi wàn měi yuán.
    The lottery prize is one million dollars.

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.

一百hundred
一yīone百bǎihundred
偏正Modifier + head
万wànten thousand

一百 gives a hundred, and 万 gives ten thousand, yielding one million.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

一 is drawn as one horizontal stroke, marking the number one.

Open 一 →

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
一一yī
Sound part声符shēngfú
白
白bái百bǎi
Same sound today

百 combines 一, which carries the number meaning, with 白, which provides the sound.

Open 百 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萬; 万 is its simplified writing.

For 万, the form 萬 was originally a picture of a scorpion, later borrowed for its sound to write 'ten thousand'; the scorpion picture is unrelated to that number.

Open 万 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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