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失业率 (shī yè lǜ) — unemployment rate

Definition

noun
unemployment rate

Examples

  • 失业率。
    Zhè ge guó jiā de shī yè lǜ yì zhí hěn gāo.
    The unemployment rate in this country has been very high.
  • 失业率。
    shī yè lǜ De zēng jiā yǐng xiǎng le hěn duō rén de shēng huó.
    The increase in the unemployment rate has affected many people's lives.
  • 失业率。
    Měi guó de shī yè lǜ bǐ rì běn de gāo.
    The unemployment rate in the US is higher than that in Japan.

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.

失业lose job
失shīlose业yèjob
动宾Verb + object
率lǜrate

失业 (losing a job) names what is counted in the 率 (rate).

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The shape is explained as a fallen person's footprint surrounded by drops of blood; another reading pairs 手 (hand) and 乙 to show something falling from a hand.

Open 失 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 業; 业 is its simplified writing.

  • 丵丵zhuóchisel
  • 大大dàperson; big

The traditional 業 is explained as a picture of a beam from which bells and chimes hang, or as a person lifting that beam. The simplified 业 is a shorthand, not the original shape.

Open 业 →

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

率 was drawn as a bird-catching net, with a stick above and below. In the form described, the lower horizontal stroke is missing, so the whole shape represents a rope.

Open 率 →
Appears in
Economy & Trade

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