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高级 (gāo jí) — high-class; advanced; senior

Definition

Covers 'high-level' in three senses: skill/course level (advanced class), product quality (high-end, like 高级餐厅), and professional rank (senior engineer). 高等 is the formal bookish counterpart used in fixed terms like 高等教育.

adjective
high-classadvancedsenior

Examples

  • 高级。
    Wǒ men qù le yì jiā gāo jí cān tīng chī fàn.
    We went to a high-class restaurant to eat.
  • 。
    Tā zhèng zài shàng gāo jí zhōng wén kè.
    She is taking an advanced Chinese course.
  • 高级。
    Tā shì yì míng gāo jí gōng chéng shī.
    He is a senior engineer.

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.

高gāohigh
级jírank

高 (high) and 级 (rank) combine to mean high rank or advanced.

Characters in this word

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

高 was drawn as a tall building.

Open 高 →

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 級; 级 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糹Written in full as糸mìthread
Sound part声符shēngfú
及
及jí級jí
Same sound today

The traditional form 級 has 糹 (thread) and 及 as a sound part; its original sense was a sequence related to silk. The simplified 级 is a later shorthand.

Open 级 →
Appears in
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