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词汇 (cí huì) — vocabulary; list of words

Definition

词汇 refers to a body of words as a set (a person's vocabulary, a textbook's word list). 词 points to a single word or to speech; 字 is a single character.

noun
vocabularylist of words

Examples

  • 。
    Xué xí xīn cí huì hěn zhòng yào.
    Learning new vocabulary is very important.
  • 词汇。
    Tā de cí huì liàng hěn dà.
    His vocabulary is very large.
  • 词汇。
    Zhè běn cí diǎn de cí huì hěn fēng fù.
    The vocabulary in this dictionary is very rich.

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.

词cíword
汇huìcollection

词 means word and 汇 means collection, so together they name a collection of words.

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 詞; 词 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
言言yánspeech
Sound part声符shēngfú
司
司sī詞cí(r)
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 詞 uses 言, meaning speech, and 司 to show how it was pronounced; the simplified 词 is a shorthand, and its right side is not the historical sound part.

Open 词 →

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 匯; 汇 is its simplified writing.

The simplified 汇 stands for more than one traditional character. In most words (汇, 汇款) it is 匯; in others (词汇, 汇报) it is 彙.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
匚匚fāng
Sound part声符shēngfú
淮
淮huái匯huì
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 匯 is built from 匚 as a meaning part and 淮 as a sound part.

Open 汇 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5HSK 2.0 Level 6Language

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