四十万 (sì shí mò) — four hundred thousand

Definition

numeral
four hundred thousand
Easily confused

Examples

  • 四十万。
    Zhè ge guó jiā yǒu sì shí mò rén.
    This country has four hundred thousand people.
  • 四十万。
    Tā huā le sì shí mò yuán mǎi fáng zi.
    He spent four hundred thousand yuan to buy a house.
  • 四十万。
    Wǒ men gōng sī qù nián shōu rù sì shí mò.
    Our company had a revenue of four hundred thousand last year.

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.

四十forty
四sìfour十shíten
偏正Modifier + head
万wànten-thousand

四 four and 十 ten make forty, and 万 ten-thousand gives 四十万 as forty ten-thousands.

Characters in this word

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

The form 四 was drawn as a nose breathing out. It later came to be used for the word four.

Open 四 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萬; 万 is its simplified writing.

For 万, the form 萬 was originally a picture of a scorpion, later borrowed for its sound to write 'ten thousand'; the scorpion picture is unrelated to that number.

Open 万 →

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