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红利 (hóng lì) — dividend (profit distributed to shareholders); bonus (extra payment beyond salary)

Definition

红利 focuses on profit share: a company's dividend to shareholders or a year-end bonus to employees. Unlike 奖金 (award money for merit) or 红包 (a cash gift envelope), 红利 comes from the company's earnings, not personal recognition.

noun
dividend (profit distributed to shareholders)bonus (extra payment beyond salary)

Examples

  • 红利。
    Gōng sī měi nián xiàng gǔ dōng fēn pèi hóng lì.
    The company distributes dividends to shareholders every year.
  • 红利。
    Nián dǐ lǎo bǎn fā le dà bǐ hóng lì.
    The boss gave out a large bonus at the end of the year.
  • 红利。
    Rén kǒu hóng lì zhèng zài zhú jiàn xiāo shī.
    The demographic dividend is gradually disappearing.

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.

红hóngred
利lìprofit

红 as a red or special kind of share narrows 利 profit, yielding dividend or bonus.

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 紅; 红 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糸糸mìsilk
Sound part声符shēngfú
工
工gōng紅hóng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 紅 puts 糸 (silk) next to 工, which gives the sound; the simplified 红 is a later shorthand.

Open 红 →

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

利 combines 禾 (grain) and 刀 (knife), showing a knife used to cut grain.

Open 利 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Finance & Banking

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