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核战争 (hé zhàn zhēng) — nuclear war

Definition

noun
nuclear war

Examples

  • 核战争。
    hé zhàn zhēng Duì quán rén lèi dōu shì jù dà de wēi xié.
    Nuclear war is a huge threat to all humanity.
  • ，核战争。
    Gè guó yīng gāi gòng tóng nǔ lì, bì miǎn hé zhàn zhēng de fā shēng.
    Countries should work together to avoid the occurrence of nuclear war.
  • 核战争。
    Méi yǒu rén xī wàng kàn dào hé zhàn zhēng bào fā.
    No one wants to see nuclear war break out.

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.

核hénuclear
战争war
战zhànfight争zhēngcontest
联合Coordinate

'核' means nuclear and '战争' means war, so the word denotes a war involving nuclear weapons.

Characters in this word

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
木木mùtree
Sound part声符shēngfú
亥
亥hài核hé
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

核 pairs 木, a tree, with 亥 to give its sound; it originally named a kind of tree, and its later meanings are borrowed.

Open 核 →

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
戈戈gē
Sound part声符shēngfú
占
占zhàn战zhàn
Same sound today

战 pairs 占, which gives its sound, with 戈, a weapon.

Open 战 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 爭; 争 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 爭 shows two hands on a plowshare; the simplified 争 is a later abbreviation, so this picture belongs to 爭, not 争.

Open 争 →
Appears in
Military & Defense

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