冻土 (dòng tǔ) — frozen ground, frozen soil; permafrost (in scientific contexts)

Definition

Scientific term for ground that stays frozen year-round (permafrost). In everyday Chinese it can simply mean 'frozen soil', but in climate and geology contexts it refers to permafrost specifically.

noun
frozen groundfrozen soilpermafrost (in scientific contexts)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 冻土。
    Xī bó lì yà yǒu dà miàn jī de dòng tǔ.
    Siberia has large areas of frozen ground.
  • 冻土。
    Quán qiú biàn nuǎn dǎo zhì dòng tǔ kāi shǐ róng huà.
    Global warming is causing the permafrost to start melting.
  • 冻土。
    Zài dòng tǔ shàng xiū jiàn tiě lù fēi cháng kùn nan.
    Building railways on frozen ground is very difficult.

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.

冻dòngfrozen
土tǔearth

“冻” (frozen) qualifies “土” (earth), meaning frozen ground or soil.

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 凍; 冻 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
冫Written in full as仌bīng
Sound part声符shēngfú
東
東dōng凍dòng
Same sound today

The traditional form 凍 pairs 冫 (ice) with 東 for the sound; the simplified 冻 is a later shorthand.

Open 冻 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 土 →

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