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职员 (zhí yuán) — staff member, office worker

Definition

职员 refers to a regular white-collar employee in an office or company. Compared to 员工 (broader, any worker including manual labor) and 公务员 (government official), 职员 is everyday business/office staff.

noun
staff memberoffice worker
Measure word · 个, 位

Examples

  • 职员。
    Wǒ men bù mén yǒu èr shí duō gè zhí yuán.
    Our department has more than twenty staff members.
  • 职员。
    Nà wèi xīn zhí yuán zuò shì hěn rèn zhēn.
    That new staff member works very carefully.
  • 职员。
    Gōng sī gěi měi wèi zhí yuán fā le nián zhōng jiǎng.
    The company gave every staff member a year-end bonus.

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.

职zhíjob
员yuánperson

职 gives the idea of a job, and 员 gives the idea of a person, naming a staff member.

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 職; 职 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
耳耳ěrear
Sound part声符shēngfú
戠
戠zhí職zhí
Same sound today

The traditional form 職 pairs 耳 (ear) with 戠, which gives its sound; the simplified 职 is a shorthand, so its parts are not the historical parts.

Open 职 →

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 員; 员 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
鼎鼎dǐngding
Sound part声符shēngfú
〇
〇líng員yuán
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

In the traditional form 員, 〇 supplies the sound and 鼎 supplies the meaning; the simplified 员 is a shortened form.

Open 员 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6Professions & Jobs

Browse more HSK 6 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.