TongTong
Sign in

人工 (rén gōng) — (adjective) artificial, man-made; (noun) manpower, manual labor

Definition

Pairs an adjective 'artificial/man-made' (e.g. 人工湖) with a noun meaning 'manpower/manual labor.' 与 人造 (synthetic, for materials) and 人为 (caused by humans, often negative) differ; 人力 names the workforce itself.

adjective
artificialman-made
noun
manpowermanual labor

Examples

  • 人工。
    Zhè ge rén gōng hú shì qù nián jiàn chéng de.
    This artificial lake was completed last year.
  • 人工。
    Yòng jī qì kě yǐ jié shěng hěn duō rén gōng.
    Using machines can save a lot of manpower.
  • 人工。
    Zhè zhǒng huā zhǐ néng kào rén gōng shòu fěn.
    This kind of flower can only be pollinated artificially (by hand).

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.

人rénhuman
工gōngwork

人 gives human and 工 gives work, so the word means work done by people or human-made effort.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 人 shows a side view of a standing person, with an arm and a leg.

Open 人 →

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

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Open 工 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 6Industry & Manufacturing

Browse more HSK 5 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.