刀伤 (dāo shāng) — knife wound; stab wound; slash injury

Definition

noun
knife woundstab woundslash injury
Measure word ·

Examples

  • 刀伤
    Tā de dāo shāng hěn shēn, xū yào lì kè féng hé.
    His knife wound is very deep and needs immediate stitches.
  • 刀伤
    Fǎ yī jiàn dìng zhè shì yí dào dāo shāng, xiōng qì shì yì bǎ shuǐ guǒ dāo.
    The forensic examiner identified this as a knife wound; the weapon was a fruit knife.
  • 刀伤
    Gǔ dài bīng qì liú xià de dāo shāng zài bó wù guǎn de cáng pǐn shàng qīng xī kě jiàn.
    The knife wounds left by ancient weapons are clearly visible on the museum's collection pieces.

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.

dāoknife

刀 names the knife and 伤 the wound, so it is a wound made by a knife.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 刀 comes from a simple picture of a knife.

Open 刀 →

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 傷; 伤 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
Sound part声符shēngfú
𥏻
𥏻𥏻shāng
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 傷 shows 人, a person, and uses 𥏻 to give the sound; the simplified 伤 is a later shorthand.

Open 伤 →

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