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公益 (gōng yì) — public welfare; public interest

Definition

公益 refers to activities or causes that serve the public good (charity, donations, volunteer work). Unlike 利益 ('benefit/interest' to a person or group), 公益 has no private gain — it's for society as a whole.

noun
public welfarepublic interest
Easily confused

Examples

  • 公益。
    Zhè ge gōng yì xiàng mù bāng zhù le hěn duō pín kùn xué shēng.
    This public welfare project has helped many impoverished students.
  • 公益。
    Tā yì zhí zhì lì yú gōng yì shì yè.
    She has always been committed to the public welfare cause.
  • 公益。
    Hěn duō qǐ yè dōu huì zuò gōng yì guǎng gào.
    Many companies run public service advertisements.

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.

公gōngpublic
益yìbenefit

公 means public and 益 means benefit, so the word names benefit shared by the public.

Characters in this word

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

One theory sees 公 as a picture of a wide-mouthed, round-bottomed jar.

Open 公 →

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

益 puts 水 (water) above 皿 (a vessel), originally showing water overflowing the vessel.

Open 益 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6Society & Public Life

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