五指 (wǔ zhī) — five fingers | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

five fingers

Examples

五指，。
Tā shēn chū wǔ zhī, biǎo shì yào wǔ kuài qián.
He held out five fingers, indicating he wanted five yuan.
，五指。
Tán gāng qín de shí hou, wǔ zhī yào líng huó dì pèi hé.
When playing the piano, the five fingers must coordinate flexibly.
五指。
Rén de wǔ zhī gè yǒu bù tóng de cháng dù.
A person's five fingers each have different lengths.

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 gives the number and 指 means fingers.

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.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

扌旨指

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒu

Sound part声符shēngfú

旨

旨zhǐ指zhǐ

Same sound today

The left part 扌 is the hand form 手. The right part 旨 gives the sound.

Appears in

Body Parts Numbers & Counting

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