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共同 (gòng tóng) — common, shared, joint

Definition

共同 (gòngtóng) is the everyday adjective 'common, shared, joint' for things held or done by several parties. Unlike 公共 ('public' — for everyone in society), 共同 points to a specific group sharing something. Pairs with nouns like 兴趣, 目标, 努力.

adjective
commonsharedjoint

Examples

  • 共同。
    Tā men zhǎo dào le gòng tóng de xìng qù.
    They found a common interest.
  • 共同。
    Wǒ men yào gòng tóng nǔ lì wán chéng zhè ge rèn wu.
    We must work together to finish this task.
  • 共同。
    Zhè liǎng gè bù mén gòng tóng fù zé zhè ge xiàng mù.
    These two departments are jointly responsible for jointly responsible for this project.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

共gòngcommon
同tóngsame

共 (common) and 同 (same) combine to mean shared or joint.

Characters in this word

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

  • 廾廾gǒngtwo hands
  • 口口kǒuan object

共 shows 廾, two hands, holding up an object. That object was written 口 and later became the 廿-like top.

Open 共 →

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

同 originally drew a pipe. It is the old form of 筒.

Open 同 →
Appears in
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