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体育 (tǐ yù) — sports; physical education

Definition

体育 means 'sports' or 'physical education' as a school subject or general concept. Unlike 运动, which names a specific activity or the act of working out, 体育 refers to sports/PE as a field.

noun
sportsphysical education

Examples

  • 。
    Wǒ měi tiān shàng tǐ yù kè.
    I have PE class every day.
  • 体育。
    tǐ yù Lǎo shī hěn nián qīng.
    The PE teacher is very young.
  • 体育？
    Nǐ píng shí cān jiā shén me tǐ yù huó dòng?
    What sports activities do you usually participate in?

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.

体tǐbody
育yùcultivate

体 (body) and 育 (cultivate) suggest cultivating the body through exercise.

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 體; 体 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
骨骨gǔbone
Sound part声符shēngfú
豊
豊lǐ體tǐ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 體 pairs 骨 (bone) with 豊 as a sound part; this note is about 體, not about the parts of 体.

Open 体 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 育 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 3HSK 2.0 Level 3Sports & Athletics5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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