参赛队 (cān sài duì) — team of participants in a competition; competing team

Definition

noun
team of participants in a competitioncompeting team
Measure word · 支

Examples

  • 参赛队。
    Zhè cì bǐ sài yí gòng yǒu èr shí zhī cān sài duì cān jiā.
    A total of twenty teams participated in this competition.
  • 参赛队。
    cān sài duì De duì yuán men zhèng zài zuò zuì hòu de zhǔn bèi.
    The members of the competing team are making final preparations.
  • 参赛队。
    Zhǔ bàn fāng wèi měi gè cān sài duì tí gōng le tǒng yī de fú zhuāng.
    The organizer provided uniform clothing for each competing team.

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.

参赛participate in competition
参cānjoin赛sàicompetition
动宾Verb + object
队duìteam

参赛 means to take part in a competition, and 队 means a team; together they denote a team that competes.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 參; 参 is its simplified writing.

For simplified 参, the story belongs to traditional 參, which combines 晶 (stars), 光 (light), and 彡 (rays) to show the Three Stars; one reading takes 光 as a kneeling person looking up.

Open 参 →

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 賽; 赛 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèishell
Sound part声符shēngfú
塞
塞sāi賽sài
Same sound today

The traditional form 賽 uses 貝 (shell) for meaning and 塞 for sound. The simplified 赛 is a later shorthand.

Open 赛 →

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 隊; 队 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
阜阜fù
Sound part声符shēngfú
㒸
㒸㒸隊duì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 隊 has 阜 as the meaning part and 㒸 as the sound part.

Open 队 →

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