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旱灾 (hàn zāi) — drought

Definition

旱灾 is specifically a drought — a disaster caused by lack of rain. It names the EVENT (the disaster), while 干旱 is the ADJECTIVE describing dry conditions. Pairs with 灾难/灾害 as the natural-disaster category.

noun
drought
Measure word · 场

Examples

  • 旱灾。
    hàn zāi Dǎo zhì zhè ge dì qū yán zhòng quē shuǐ.
    The drought caused a severe water shortage in this area.
  • 旱灾。
    Zhèng fǔ zhèng zài xiǎng bàn fǎ jiě jué zhè cì de hàn zāi wèn tí.
    The government is trying to find ways to solve the problem of this drought.
  • 旱灾，。
    Zhè chǎng hàn zāi chí xù le sān nián, nóng zuò wù jī hū jué shōu.
    This drought lasted for three years, and the crops barely yielded anything.

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.

旱hàndry
灾zāidisaster

旱 points to dryness and 灾 to disaster, giving a disaster caused by lack of water.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 旱 →

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 災; 灾 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
火火huǒfire
Sound part声符shēngfú
𡿧
𡿧𡿧災zāi
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 災 combines 火 (fire) with 𡿧, an old picture of flowing water that supplied the sound; the simplified 灾 is a shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 灾 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6

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