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彻夜 (chè yè) — all night long; throughout the night

Definition

彻夜 (chèyè) is a written adverb meaning 'all through the night,' emphasizing continuous duration. 与通宵 (a noun, 'all night') and 连夜 ('straight through, into the next morning') 同义时，彻夜 is more literary.

adverb
all night longthroughout the night

Examples

  • ，彻夜。
    Wèi le wán chéng xiàng mù, tā men chè yè jiā bān.
    They worked overtime all night to finish the project.
  • 彻夜，。
    Zuó wǎn wǒ chè yè wèi shuì, yì zhí zài kàn shū.
    I didn't sleep all night last night, reading the whole time.
  • 彻夜。
    Jiē shàng chè yè dōu yǒu xún luó de jǐng chá.
    There are police patrolling the streets all night long.

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.

彻chèthrough
夜yènight

彻 gives the sense of through or whole, and 夜 is night, so the word means throughout the night.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 徹; 彻 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 徹 comes from a picture of 又 (hand) taking a 鬲 (pot) away after eating; 彻 is the simplified form of 徹.

Open 彻 →

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
夕夕xīmoon
Sound part声符shēngfú
亦
亦yì夜yè
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

Open 夜 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Time of Day

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