双胞胎 (shuāng bāo tāi) — twins | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

双胞胎 is the everyday noun 'twins' — two children born together. Unlike the adjective 孪生 (used as a modifier, e.g. 孪生兄弟), 双胞胎 stands on its own as a noun and takes the measure word 对.

noun

twins

Measure word · 对

Examples

双胞胎。
Tā shēng le yí duì shuāng bāo tāi.
She gave birth to a pair of twins.
双胞胎。
Zhè duì shuāng bāo tāi cháng dé yì mú yí yàng.
This pair of twins looks exactly alike.
双胞胎。
shuāng bāo tāi De xìng gé wǎng wǎng bù tóng.
Twins often have different personalities.

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.

双shuāngdouble

胞胎fetus

胞bāowomb胎tāifetus

联合Side by side

The parts 双 meaning double and 胞胎 meaning fetus combine to mean twins.

Characters in this word

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

又又双

又又yòu
又又yòu

双 is made of two 又 parts side by side. Repeating 又 gives the sense of a pair.

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

月包胞

Meaning part形符xíngfú

月Written in full as肉ròuflesh

Sound part声符shēngfú

包

包bāo胞bāo

Same sound today

胞 pairs 月 (flesh) with 包, a shape representing a pregnant figure, to point to the membrane enclosing a fetus.

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

⺼Written in full as肉ròu

Sound part声符shēngfú

台

台tái胎tāi

Same sound today

胎 is formed from ⺼ (written in full as 肉) and 台, which gives the sound.

Appears in

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