TongTong
Sign in

同年 (tóng nián) — the same year (as a noun phrase); a person who passed the imperial examination in the same year; a person of the same age; peer

Definition

同年 has three senses: 'the same year', a person of the same age (peer — used like 同龄), and a historical term for candidates who passed the imperial exam together (科举).

noun
the same year (as a noun phrase)a person who passed the imperial examination in the same yeara person of the same agepeer

Examples

  • 同年，。
    Tā men tóng nián chū shēng, yì qǐ zhǎng dà.
    They were born in the same year and grew up together.
  • 同年，。
    Tā hé wáng míng shì tóng nián, dōu zhōng le jìn shì.
    He and Wang Ming were fellow candidates who passed the imperial exam in the same year; both became jinshi.
  • 同年，。
    Wǒ men shì tóng nián, suǒ yǐ yǒu hěn duō gòng tóng huà tí.
    We are of the same age, so we have a lot in common.

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.

同tóngsame
年niányear

同年 combines 同 (same) and 年 (year) to refer to the same year or birth year.

Characters in this word

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

同 originally drew a pipe. It is the old form of 筒.

Open 同 →

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
Friends & SocialTime (Abstract)

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.