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类比 (lèi bǐ) — analogy

Definition

noun
analogy

Examples

  • 类比。
    Lǎo shī yòng lèi bǐ lái jiě shì zhè ge chōu xiàng gài niàn.
    The teacher used an analogy to explain this abstract concept.
  • 类比，。
    Zhè ge lèi bǐ fēi cháng tiē qiè, yì tīng jiù dǒng le.
    This analogy is very apt; I understood it as soon as I heard it.
  • 类比。
    Tā de lèi bǐ bǎ liǎng gè wán quán bù tóng de lǐng yù lián xì le qǐ lái.
    His analogy linked two completely different fields together.

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.

类lèicategory/kind
比bǐcompare

类 means category or kind, and 比 means compare; together they denote comparing things by category.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 類; 类 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
犬犬quǎn
Sound part声符shēngfú
頪
頪lèi類lèi
Same sound today

The traditional form 類 pairs 犬, which relates to the meaning, with 頪, which gives the sound. The simplified 类 is a shorthand, and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 类 →

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

  • 匕匕bǐ
  • 匕匕bǐ

比 is two 匕 placed side by side. Chu Wan-li treats both as sound parts, while an old reading takes the side-by-side arrangement as putting things next to each other.

Open 比 →
Appears in
Thinking & Cognition

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