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昼夜 (zhòu yè) — day and night; a period of 24 hours

Definition

昼夜 is a written noun for the pair 'day and night' as a 24-hour cycle. As an adverbial phrase (昼夜不停地…) it means 'around the clock', stronger than 日夜; 一直/不断/直 describe continuous action but don't pair two times of day.

noun
day and nighta period of 24 hours

Examples

  • 昼夜，。
    zhòu yè Jiāo tì, sì jì lún huí.
    Day and night alternate, and the seasons cycle.
  • 昼夜。
    Hù shi men zhòu yè bù tíng dì zhào gù bìng rén.
    The nurses take care of patients day and night without stopping.
  • 昼夜。
    Shā mò zhōng zhòu yè wēn chā hěn dà.
    The temperature difference between day and night in the desert is large.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

昼zhòuday
夜yènight

昼 means day and 夜 means night, so together they mean day and 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 晝; 昼 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 晝 pairs 日 (sun) with 聿, whose original meaning is unclear; the whole glyph was used for “daytime”.

Open 昼 →

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 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Time of Day

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