谷歌 (Gǔ gē) — Google (the company and its search engine)

Definition

noun

Google (the company and its search engine)

谷歌。
Wǒ yòng Gǔ gē sōu suǒ le hěn duō zī liào.
I used Google to search for a lot of information.
谷歌。
Gǔ gē Shì yì jiā hěn yǒu míng de kē jì gōng sī.
Google is a very famous technology company.
谷歌？
Nǐ de shǒu jī kě yǐ ān zhuāng Gǔ gē dì tú ma?
Can your phone install Google Maps?

Characters in this word

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

The shape of 谷 comes from a picture of a valley: an opening between two near-parallel lines for mountain walls.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

哥欠歌

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

哥

Same sound today

The shape 歌 uses 哥 for the sound and 欠, meaning blow. It came from a form of 哥 used for singing.