五十三 (wǔ shí sān) — fifty-three

Definition

numeral
fifty-three
Easily confused

Examples

  • 五十三。
    Tā jīn nián wǔ shí sān suì le.
    He is fifty-three years old this year.
  • 五十三。
    Zhè běn shū yǒu wǔ shí sān yè.
    This book has fifty-three pages.
  • 五十三。
    Wǒ men bān yǒu wǔ shí sān gè xué shēng.
    Our class has fifty-three students.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

五十fifty
五wǔfive十shíten
偏正Modifier + head
三sānthree

五十三 combines 五十, literally five ten, with 三, three, to express fifty-three.

Characters in this word

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

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

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 →

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 →

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