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明月 (míng yuè) — bright moon; moonlight; (literary) legendary luminous pearl

Definition

A literary noun for the bright, clear moon — the moon as a poetic image, not just 月亮 in elevated language. The second sense ('legendary luminous pearl') is a rare literary allusion and rarely needed.

noun
bright moonmoonlight(literary) legendary luminous pearl
Measure word · 轮

Examples

  • 明月。
    Jīn wǎn de míng yuè hěn měi.
    Tonight's bright moon is very beautiful.
  • 明月。
    míng yuè Guà zài tiān kōng zhōng.
    The bright moon hangs in the sky.
  • 明月。
    Tā wàng zhe míng yuè xiǎng qǐ le jiā xiāng.
    He looked at the bright moon and thought of his hometown.

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.

明míngbright
月yuèmoon

明 gives 'bright' and 月 gives 'moon', so together they mean the bright moon.

Characters in this word

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

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Open 明 →

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

月 was drawn as a crescent moon, with the curved outline showing the moon’s shape.

Open 月 →
Appears in
Sky & Space

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