照明 (zhào míng) — to light up; to illuminate | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

照明 means the act of lighting up a space, usually with artificial light (lamps, fixtures). It differs from 灯光 and 光线, which refer to light itself as a noun.

verb

to light upto illuminate

Examples

照明。
Jù dà de tàn zhào dēng zhào míng le zhěng gè cāo chǎng.
The huge searchlight illuminated the entire playground.
照明。
Yuè guāng zhào míng zhe níng jìng de hú miàn.
Moonlight lit up the quiet lake surface.
照明。
Wǒ men xū yào yòng gèng duō dēng guāng zhào míng nà fú huà.
We need more lights to illuminate that painting.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

补充bǔchōngVerb + complement

An action followed by its result or direction.

The 照 idea of shining leads to 明, brightness, giving illuminate.

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.

灬昭照

Meaning part形符xíngfú

灬Written in full as火huǒfire

Sound part声符shēngfú

昭

昭zhāo照zhào

Same sound today

照 uses 灬, a bottom form of 火 (fire), plus 昭 for the sound.

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

日月明

日日rìsun
月月yuèmoon

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.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 Energy & Power

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