沙特 (Shā tè) — Saudi Arabia (abbreviation for 沙特阿拉伯)

Definition

noun

Saudi Arabia (abbreviation for 沙特阿拉伯)

沙特。
Wǒ dǎ suàn míng nián qù Shā tè lǚ yóu.
I plan to travel to Saudi Arabia next year.
沙特。
Shā tè Shì shì jiè shàng zuì dà de shí yóu chū kǒu guó zhī yī.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world's largest oil exporters.
沙特。
Zhè jià fēi jī shì cóng Shā tè fēi lái de.
This plane flew in from Saudi Arabia.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The characters 沙 and 特 carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the foreign name Saudi.

Sound-only characters

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

沙 puts 少 (dots) beside 水 (water), showing sand on a shoreline.

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

牛寺特

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

寺

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape combines 牛 (ox) with 寺, which gives the pronunciation; it originally meant a large bull.

Appears in