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作品 (zuò pǐn) — work (of art), piece (of creative work)

Definition

A general term for any created work — art, writing, music, or film. Compare 著作, which is more formal and usually means a written book or major scholarly work.

noun
work (of art)piece (of creative work)
Measure word · 部, 篇

Examples

  • 。
    Zhè fú huà shì tā de dài biǎo zuò pǐn.
    This painting is his representative work.
  • 作品。
    Tā xiě le yì piān guān yú huán bǎo de zuò pǐn.
    She wrote a piece about environmental protection.
  • 作品。
    Zhè bù zuò pǐn huò dé le guó jì dà jiǎng.
    This work won an international grand prize.

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.

作zuòcreate
品pǐnproduct; item

作 means to create, and 品 means a product or item, together a created product.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
乍
乍zhà作zuò
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 亻 comes from 人, meaning 'person', and the right side 乍 gives the sound.

Open 作 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

品 repeats the same simple shape three times, representing various objects.

Open 品 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 4HSK 2.0 Level 5Art & Fine Arts2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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