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美钞 (měi chāo) — US banknotes, American dollar bills

Definition

noun
US banknotesAmerican dollar bills
Measure word · 张

Examples

  • 美钞。
    Tā shǒu lǐ ná zhe yì zhāng yì bǎi yuán de měi chāo.
    He is holding a one-hundred-dollar US banknote in his hand.
  • ，美钞。
    Chū guó lǚ yóu qián, wǒ qù yín háng huàn le yì xiē měi chāo.
    Before traveling abroad, I went to the bank to exchange some US dollars.
  • 美钞。
    Shōu cáng jiā duì jiù bǎn měi chāo hěn gǎn xìng qù.
    Collectors are very interested in old-issue US banknotes.

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.

美měiAmerican
钞chāobanknote

美 means American and 钞 means banknote, so the word names US dollar bills.

Characters in this word

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

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

Open 美 →

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 鈔; 钞 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
金金jīn
Sound part声符shēngfú
少
少shǎo鈔chāo
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 鈔 has 金 as the meaning part and 少 for the sound.

Open 钞 →
Appears in
Money & Currency

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