七彩 (qī cǎi) — seven colors; a variety of colors; colorful

Definition

noun
seven colorsa variety of colorscolorful

Examples

  • ，七彩。
    Cǎi hóng yǒu qī zhǒng yán sè, suǒ yǐ yě jiào qī cǎi.
    The rainbow has seven colors, so it's also called qīcǎi.
  • 七彩斓，。
    Xià tiān de wǎn xiá qī cǎi bān lán, fēi cháng měi lì.
    The summer sunset is colorful and very beautiful.
  • 七彩。
    Hái zi men yòng qī cǎi de huà bǐ huà chū xīn zhōng de shì jiè.
    The children use colorful paintbrushes to draw the world in their hearts.

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.

七qīseven
彩cǎicolor

七 for seven and 彩 for color combine into many bright colors.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 七 comes from two crossing lines: the top line runs left to right, and the next line goes down and across.

Open 七 →

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
彡彡shān
Sound part声符shēngfú
采
采cǎi彩cǎi
Same sound today

彩 puts 采, which gives the sound, next to 彡, the three-stroke mark that carries the meaning.

Open 彩 →

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