贼窝 (zéi wō) — thieves' hideout; den of thieves

Definition

noun

thieves' hideoutden of thieves

Measure word · 个

Examples

贼窝。
Jǐng chá zhǎo dào le nà ge zéi wō.
The police found that thieves' hideout.
贼窝。
Zhè ge zéi wō lǐ cáng zhe hěn duō zāng wù.
This thieves' hideout hides a lot of stolen goods.
贼窝。
Tā men jué dìng bǎ zéi wō shāo diào.
They decided to burn down the thieves' hideout.

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.

贼zéithief

窝wōden

“贼” means thief and “窝” means den, so it names a den used by thieves.

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 賊; 贼 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

戈戈gēweapon

Sound part声符shēngfú

則

則zé賊zéi

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional 賊 combines 戈, a weapon, with 則 to give the pronunciation; the simplified 贼 is a later shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 贼 →

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 窩; 窝 is its simplified writing.

穴咼窩

Meaning part形符xíngfú

穴穴xuécave

Sound part声符shēngfú

咼

咼wāi窩wō

Same sound today

The traditional form 窩 uses 穴, a cave, for meaning and 咼 for sound; the simplified 窝 is a later shorthand.

Open 窝 →