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历年 (lì nián) — over the years, across (past) years

Definition

历年 means 'over the years / across past years' — a span of time, not a specific cycle. Use it for trends across many years; 往年 is a single past year, and 年度 is one year within a named cycle (fiscal, academic).

noun
over the yearsacross (past) years

Examples

  • 历年。
    Zhè fèn bào gào fēn xī le lì nián de xiāo shòu qíng kuàng.
    This report analyzes sales conditions over the years.
  • 历年。
    lì nián Lái de chuán tǒng dōu shì hé jiā tuán yuán guò chú xī.
    The tradition over the years has always been for the whole family to gather for New Year's Eve.
  • 历年。
    Gōng sī lì nián de lì rùn yì zhí zài wěn bù zēng zhǎng.
    The company's profit over the years has been steadily growing.

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.

历lìpassed
年niányear

『历』conveys “passed” or “previous” and 『年』conveys “year”, together referring to years that have gone by.

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 歷; 历 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 历 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (简历, 经历) it is 歷; in others (日历) it is 曆.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
止止zhǐ
Sound part声符shēngfú
厤
厤lì歷lì
Same sound today

The form 歷 pairs 止 with the sound part 厤.

Open 历 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6

Browse more HSK 6 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.