全员 (quán yuán) — all members; entire staff; whole team

Definition

noun

all membersentire staffwhole team

全员。
Gōng sī quán yuán cān jiā le zhè cì péi xùn.
The entire company participated in this training.
全员。
Zhè cì huó dòng yāo qiú quán yuán chū xí.
This event requires all members to attend.
全员。
quán yuán Tōng guò nǔ lì wán chéng le nián dù mù biāo.
The whole team achieved the annual goal through hard work.

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.

全 means entire or all, and 员 means member or personnel, together naming all the members.

Characters in this word

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

The shape puts 入 together with 玉 to show a whole piece of jade, so it means complete or whole.

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 員; 员 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

〇

〇líng員yuán

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 員, 〇 supplies the sound and 鼎 supplies the meaning; the simplified 员 is a shortened form.

Appears in