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床位 (chuáng wèi) — bed (in a hospital, hotel, dormitory, train, etc.); berth; bunk

Definition

床位 means a single bed slot in a shared place (hospital ward, hotel room, dorm, train). Counted with 张; it's the slot itself, not the room — compare 宿舍/寝室 (the whole dorm) and 卧铺 (a train sleeper berth).

noun
bed (in a hospital, hotel, dormitory, train, etc.)berthbunk
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 床位。
    Zhè jiā yī yuàn yǒu wǔ bǎi zhāng chuáng wèi.
    This hospital has 500 beds.
  • 床位。
    Wǒ men dìng le yí gè yǒu liǎng gè chuáng wèi de fáng jiān.
    We booked a room with two beds.
  • 床位。
    Sù shè lóu lǐ yí gòng yǒu èr bǎi gè chuáng wèi.
    There are 200 beds in the dormitory building.

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.

床chuángbed
位wèiposition

床 (bed) and 位 (position) give the sense of a bed spot in a room or vehicle.

Characters in this word

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

The 床 shape combines 广, a house, and 木, tree, to show a wooden bed inside a house.

Open 床 →

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
人人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
立
立lì位wèi
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

位 combines 人 (man), related to people, with 立, which gives the sound. It was often simply written as 立.

Open 位 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9AccommodationFurniture

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