牙刷 (yá shuā) — toothbrush | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Toothbrush, the brush used to clean your teeth. Pairs with 牙膏 (toothpaste) in everyday dental-care talk; 牙 and 牙齿 refer to the teeth themselves.

noun

toothbrush

Measure word · 把

Examples

牙刷。
Qǐng nǐ mǎi yì bǎ xīn yá shuā.
Please buy a new toothbrush.
牙刷。牙刷。
Nǐ yīng gāi měi gè yuè huàn yí cì yá shuā. huàn yí cì yá shuā.
You should replace your toothbrush every month.
牙刷。
Wǒ lǚ xíng de shí hou huì dài shàng yá shuā.
I will bring my toothbrush when I travel.

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.

牙 means tooth and 刷 means brush, so a 牙刷 is a brush for teeth.

Characters in this word

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

刀刀dāoknife

Sound part声符shēngfú

㕞

㕞㕞刷shuā

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

刷 uses 刀, a knife, and pairs it with 㕞 as a sound component.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 3 Toiletries & Cosmetics

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