心诚 (xīn chéng) — sincere (of one's heart)

Definition

心诚 (xīnchéng) is a literary two-character adjective meaning 'sincere at heart' — more formal and set-phrase-like than everyday 真诚. Often used in proverbs such as 心诚则灵.

adjective
sincere (of one's heart)
Easily confused

Examples

  • 心诚，。
    Zhǐ yào nǐ xīn chéng, jiù yí dìng huì yǒu hǎo jié guǒ.
    As long as you are sincere, there will surely be good results.
  • 心诚，。
    Tā xīn chéng dì wèi dà jiā fú wù, suǒ yǐ dà jiā dōu hěn xìn rèn tā.
    He sincerely serves everyone, so everyone trusts him.
  • 心诚，。
    xīn chéng Zé líng, zhè jù huà hěn yǒu dào lǐ.
    Sincerity works — this saying makes a lot of sense.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

心xīnheart
诚chéngsincere

The heart and sincerity combine to mean sincere in one's heart.

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 心 comes from a drawing of a heart, now highly stylized.

Open 心 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 誠; 诚 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yánspeech
Sound part声符shēngfú
成
成chéng誠chéng
Same sound today

In 誠, 言 is the speech part and 成 gives the sound; this is about the traditional form 誠, not the simplified 诚.

Open 诚 →

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