坦克 (tǎn kè) — tank (military vehicle)

Definition

noun

tank (military vehicle)

Measure word · 辆

坦克。
Nà liàng tǎn kè shì xīn de.
That tank is new.
坦克。
Zhàn chǎng shàng yǒu xǔ duō tǎn kè.
There are many tanks on the battlefield.
坦克。
Tā xué huì kāi tǎn kè le.
He learned to drive a tank.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

坦克 represents the foreign sound for a military vehicle; 坦 and 克 carry no meaning here.

Sound-only characters

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

土旦坦

Meaning part形符xíngfú

土土tǔearth

Sound part声符shēngfú

旦

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

坦 is made from 土 (earth) plus 旦, which provides the sound. The earth part shows the sense is about ground.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in