尿道炎 (niào dào yán) — urethritis

Definition

A medical term for inflammation of the urethra (the tube that carries urine out of the body). Symptoms shown in the examples include painful urination (尿痛) and frequent urination (尿频).

noun
urethritis

Examples

  • 尿道炎，。
    Yī shēng shuō tā dé le niào dào yán, xū yào chī yào zhì liáo.
    The doctor said he has urethritis and needs medication treatment.
  • 尿道炎。
    niào dào yán De zhèng zhuàng bāo kuò niào tòng hé niào pín.
    Symptoms of urethritis include painful urination and frequent urination.
  • 尿道炎。
    Duō hē shuǐ kě yǐ huǎn jiě niào dào yán de bú shì.
    Drinking more water can relieve the discomfort of urethritis.

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.

尿道urinary passage
尿niàourine道dàopassage
偏正Modifier + head
炎yáninflammation

尿道 (urinary passage) and 炎 (inflammation) combine to name inflammation of that passage.

Characters in this word

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

Originally it drew a person urinating. The old form used 尾 (tail) and 水 (water); 尾 later simplified to 尸 (body), so 尿 now shows 尸 and 水.

Open 尿 →

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
行行xíngstreet
止止zhǐfoot
Sound part声符shēngfú
𩠐
首shǒu道dào
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

Early 道 showed a street 行, a foot 止, and a part written 首 or 𩠐; the right part of 行 later disappeared.

Open 道 →

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

炎 places two 火 (fire) shapes vertically, one above the other, to show fire doubled.

Open 炎 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.