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凶手 (xiōng shǒu) — murderer, assassin

Definition

凶手 is the perpetrator of a specific murder case (e.g. the murderer the police are hunting). 杀手 often points to a professional hit man or a figurative 'killer' in sports, and rarely pairs with 在场/留下指纹.

noun
murdererassassin
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 凶手。
    Jǐng fāng zhèng zài quán lì zhuī bǔ xiōng shǒu.
    The police are doing their best to hunt down the murderer.
  • 凶手。
    Fǎ tíng pàn le xiōng shǒu sǐ xíng.
    The court sentenced the murderer to death.
  • 凶手。
    xiōng shǒu Zài xiàn chǎng liú xià le yí gè zhǐ wén.
    The murderer left a fingerprint at the scene.

Origin

Derived word
构词法gòucífǎ
后缀hòuzhuìSuffix

A fixed syllable at the end that turns the word into a noun, a person, a place or the like.

凶xiōngmurderous
手shǒuperson

凶 murderous and 手 person together mean someone who commits murder.

Characters in this word

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

凶 originally drew a hole with a lump of rock, mud, stone, or bamboo in it.

Open 凶 →

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

手 draws a five-fingered human hand: the top line is a bent middle finger, and the horizontal lines show the other four fingers.

Open 手 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 61000 Most Frequent Chinese WordsCrime & Police2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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