大部 (dà bù) — large part; majority (abbreviation of 大部分)

Definition

Literary/formal short form of 大部分 ('the majority, most of'). Mostly seen in written Chinese; in speech prefer 大部分.

noun

large partmajority (abbreviation of 大部分)

大部。
Zhè ge wén jiàn de dà bù nèi róng wǒ yǐ jīng kàn guò le.
I've already read most of the content of this document.
大部，。
dà bù Qíng kuàng xià, zhè yàng de wèn tí bù nán jiě jué.
In most cases, such problems are not hard to solve.
，。
Tā mǎi le yì běn dà bù tóu de shū, fàng zài shū jià shàng le.
He bought a thick volume and put it on the bookshelf.

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.

大dàKangxi radical 大

部bùsection

In 大部, 大 is the Kangxi radical and 部 the section, meaning radical 37.

Characters in this word

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

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

咅

咅pǒu部bù

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

部 pairs 咅, which gives the sound, with 邑. It originally named a place in today's Gansu.

Appears in