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面粉 (miàn fěn) — flour

Definition

Flour — specifically wheat flour for baking and noodles. Unlike 粉 (general powder, or starch noodles), 面粉 always means the milled-wheat product.

noun
flour

Examples

  • 面粉。
    Mā ma yòng miàn fěn zuò dàn gāo.
    Mom uses flour to make a cake.
  • 面粉。
    Zhè dài miàn fěn shì liǎng qiān kè de.
    This bag of flour is two kilograms.
  • 面粉。
    miàn fěn Kě yǐ yòng lái zuò miàn tiáo.
    Flour can be used to make noodles.

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.

面miànwheat flour
粉fěnpowder

“面” refers to wheat flour, “粉” means powder; together they name flour.

Characters in this word

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

面 originally drew a man’s face, with one eye exaggerated; the horizontal stroke was added later.

Open 面 →

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
米米mǐrice
Sound part声符shēngfú
分
分fēn粉fěn
Same sound today

粉 pairs 米 (rice) with 分 for its sound. The rice part points to face powder made from rice.

Open 粉 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6Grains & Staples

Browse more HSK 6 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.