TongTong
Sign in

同志 (tóng zhì) — comrade (political/formal term of address); (slang) gay person; homosexual

Definition

In political/formal use, 同志 means 'comrade' — the term of address rooted in socialist and CCP discourse. In modern slang it refers to a gay person. 伙伴 and 战友 are non-political 'comrade' words for partner and comrade-in-arms.

noun
comrade (political/formal term of address)(slang) gay personhomosexual
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 同志，。
    Gè wèi tóng zhì, wǒ men yì qǐ lái wán chéng rèn wu.
    Comrades, let's complete the task together.
  • 同志。
    Zhè wèi lǎo tóng zhì cān jiā guò cháng zhēng.
    This old comrade participated in the Long March.
  • 同志。
    Tā zài shè jiāo méi tǐ shàng gōng kāi le zì jǐ de tóng zhì shēn fèn.
    He publicly came out as gay on social media.

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
志zhìaspiration

同 'same' and 志 'aspiration' form people sharing one aim; slang extends to gay community.

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
心心xīn
Sound part声符shēngfú
之
之zhī志zhì
Same sound today

志 has 心, the heart, below and a simplified top from 之 for sound.

Open 志 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Identity & Titles2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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