聚众 (jù zhòng) — to gather a crowd (often with negative or legal connotations)

Definition

Literally 'gather a crowd/mob', used almost exclusively in legal/crime-reporting contexts — the assembled people are doing something illegal (聚众闹事, 聚众赌博). Almost never used for neutral assemblies.

verb
to gather a crowd (often with negative or legal connotations)

Examples

  • 聚众，。
    Tā men jù zhòng nào shì, bèi jǐng chá dài zǒu le.
    They gathered a crowd to make trouble and were taken away by the police.
  • 聚众。
    Fǎ lǜ jìn zhǐ jù zhòng dǔ bó.
    The law prohibits gathering a crowd to gamble.
  • 聚众。
    Zhè cì kàng yì huó dòng bèi zhǐ kòng wèi jù zhòng zī shì.
    This protest was accused of being an assembly that created disturbances.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

聚jùgather
众zhòngcrowd

聚 means gather, and 众 means crowd.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
乑乑yínthree men
Sound part声符shēngfú
取
取qǔ聚jù
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

聚 is built from 取, which gives the sound, and 乑, drawn as three men, to show people coming together.

Open 聚 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 眾; 众 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 眾 shows three people under a sun-like shape, meaning a crowd gathered under the sun; the simplified 众 is a later shorthand.

Open 众 →

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