十亿 (shí yì) — one billion | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

numeral

one billion

Examples

十亿。
Zhè ge guó jiā de rén kǒu chāo guò shí yì.
This country's population exceeds one billion.
十亿。
Zhè bǐ jiāo yì jià zhí shí yì měi yuán.
This transaction is worth one billion US dollars.
十亿。
Jīn nián gōng sī de shōu rù dá dào le shí yì.
This year the company's revenue reached one billion.

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.

十shíten

亿yìhundred million

十 ten and 亿 hundred million combine to make one billion.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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 億; 亿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

人人rén

Sound part声符shēngfú

意

意yì億yì

Same sound today

The traditional form 億 pairs 人 (person) with 意 for its sound; the simplified 亿 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the original pieces.

Open 亿 →

Appears in