二百万 (èr bǎi wàn) — two million

Definition

A large round number, two million (200万). Used like an English cardinal number, typically with 块, 元, or other quantifiers in financial/population contexts.

numeral
two million

Examples

  • 二百万
    Zhè ge chéng shì yǒu èr bǎi wàn rén kǒu.
    This city has a population of two million.
  • 二百万
    Tā huā le èr bǎi wàn kuài qián mǎi fáng zi.
    He spent two million yuan to buy a house.
  • 二百万
    Gōng sī jīn nián zhuàn le èr bǎi wàn lì rùn.
    The company made a profit of two million this year.

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.

二百two hundred
èrtwobǎihundred
偏正Modifier + head
wànten thousand

The number 二百 tells how many units of 万 there are, giving two million.

Characters in this word

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

二 is drawn as two parallel strokes, where the number of strokes shows the amount.

Open 二 →

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
Sound part声符shēngfú
báibǎi
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 →

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