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药品 (yào pǐn) — medicine; pharmaceutical product; drug

Definition

药品 (yàopǐn) is the formal/technical word for medicine and pharmaceutical products — more clinical than the everyday 药. Use it for drugs as commercial or regulated goods, not 药材 (raw TCM ingredients).

noun
medicinepharmaceutical productdrug
Measure word · 种

Examples

  • 药品。
    Yī shēng gěi wǒ kāi le yì xiē yào pǐn.
    The doctor prescribed me some medicine.
  • 药品。
    Zhè zhǒng yào pǐn yì tiān zhī xū yào chī yí lì.
    You only need to take one pill of this medicine a day.
  • 药品。
    Qǐng bǎ yào pǐn fàng zài gān zào yīn liáng de dì fāng.
    Please keep the medicine in a dry, cool place.

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.

药yàomedicine
品pǐnproduct/goods

药 gives the medical kind, and 品 names a product, meaning medicines.

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 藥; 药 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
艹Written in full as艸cǎograss
Sound part声符shēngfú
樂
樂lè藥yào
Same sound today

In the traditional form 藥, 艹 shows grass and 樂 gives the sound; this story is about 藥, not about the simplified 药.

Open 药 →

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

品 repeats the same simple shape three times, representing various objects.

Open 品 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5Medicine & Treatment

Browse more HSK 5 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.