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伪证 (wěi zhèng) — perjury

Definition

A legal term for 'perjury' — false testimony given under oath in court. 伪 is the literary variant of 假, paired here with 证 (testimony/evidence).

noun
perjury

Examples

  • 伪证，。
    Tā zài fǎ tíng shàng zuò le wěi zhèng, jié guǒ bèi pàn le xíng.
    He committed perjury in court and was sentenced as a result.
  • 伪证。
    Lǜ shī zhǐ chū zhèng rén tí gōng de wěi zhèng quē fá zhèng jù zhī chí.
    The lawyer pointed out that the perjury provided by the witness lacked evidentiary support.
  • 。
    Zuò wěi zhèng shì yì zhǒng yán zhòng de fàn zuì xíng wéi.
    Committing perjury is a serious criminal offense.

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.

伪wěifalse
证zhèngevidence

伪 means false and 证 means evidence, giving false testimony.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 偽; 伪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
為
為wéi偽wěi
Same sound today

The modern 伪 comes from the traditional form 偽, where 亻 (man) marks the idea as about a person and 為 gives the sound and means “to make”; together they originally meant “artificial”.

Open 伪 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 證; 证 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yán
Sound part声符shēngfú
登
登dēng證zhèng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 證 pairs 言, a words/speech part, with 登 as a sound clue; the simplified 证 is a later shorthand.

Open 证 →
Appears in
Law & Justice

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