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三十 (sān shí) — thirty

Definition

numeral
thirty

Examples

  • 三十。
    Wǒ jīn nián sān shí suì le.
    I am thirty years old this year.
  • 三十。
    sān shí Gè rén cān jiā le huì yì.
    Thirty people attended the meeting.
  • 三十。
    Tā gōng zuò le sān shí nián.
    He has worked for thirty years.

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.

三sānthree
十shíten

三 gives three and 十 gives ten, so thirty is literally three tens.

Characters in this word

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

三 is drawn as three parallel strokes, like 一 with one stroke and 二 with two.

Open 三 →

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

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →
Appears in
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