TongTong
Sign in

五千 (wǔ qiān) — five thousand; 5,000

Definition

numeral
five thousand5,000

Examples

  • 五千。
    Zhè cì huó dòng xī yǐn le wǔ qiān duō rén cān jiā.
    This event attracted over five thousand participants.
  • 五千。
    Tā měi yuè shōu rù dà yuē wǔ qiān yuán.
    His monthly income is about five thousand yuan.
  • 五千。
    Zhè zuò sì miào yǐ yǒu wǔ qiān nián lì shǐ.
    This temple has a history of five thousand 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.

五wǔfive
千qiānthousand

The digit “五” counts how many units of “千” are meant, giving five thousand.

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 →

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yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.