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四百万 (sì bǎi wàn) — four million

Definition

numeral
four million

Examples

  • 四百万。
    Zhè ge chéng shì de rén kǒu dà yuē yǒu sì bǎi wàn.
    The population of this city is about four million.
  • 四百万。
    Tā zhōng cǎi piào dé le sì bǎi wàn yuán.
    He won four million yuan in the lottery.
  • 四百万。
    Zhè zuò qiáo de xiū jiàn chéng běn chāo guò le sì bǎi wàn měi yuán.
    The construction cost of this bridge exceeded four million US dollars.

Origin

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 →

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
一一yī
Sound part声符shēngfú
白
白bái百bǎi
Same sound today

百 combines 一, which carries the number meaning, with 白, which provides the sound.

Open 百 →

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 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting

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