Word.ws English Dictionary

phono-semantic compound

phono-semantic compound noun: a Chinese character (CJKV character) composed of a component which is related to the meaning the character and another component which is related to the sound of the character.

Noun

phono-semantic compound (plural phono-semantic compounds)

  1. A Chinese character (CJKV character) composed of a component which is related to the meaning the character and another component which is related to the sound of the character.
    • Only an opaque and weak orthography-to-phonology analogy rule can be found with the phono-semantic compound type of characters (i.e., the xingshēng zi), which covers 80% of modern daily-use characters.2006, Language and linguistics - Volume 7, Issue 3, page 579
    • 'Jeon' is a phono-semantic compound which is formed from two elements of different words in two parts.2015, Denise Doyle, New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds, →ISBN, page 57
    Synonyms:
    determination-phonetic character, semaphore-phonetic character

Synonyms of phono-semantic compound

  • determination-phonetic character
  • semaphore-phonetic character

Forms of phono-semantic compound

pluralphono-semantic compounds

Origin of phono-semantic compound

Calque from Chinese 形聲字／形声字 (xíngshēngzì).

Questions about phono-semantic compound

What does phono-semantic compound mean?
Phono-semantic compound means a Chinese character (CJKV character) composed of a component which is related to the meaning the character and another component which is related to the sound of the character.
What part of speech is phono-semantic compound?
Phono-semantic compound is a noun.
What is the plural of phono-semantic compound?
The plural of phono-semantic compound is phono-semantic compounds.

Words near phono-semantic compound in the dictionary

  1. phono
  2. phono cartridge
  3. phono cartridges
  4. phono-
  5. phono-semantic
  6. phono-semantic compound
  7. phono-semantic compounds
  8. phono-semantic matching
  9. phono-semantic matchings
  10. phonoabsorption
  11. phonoaesthetic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phono-semantic compound (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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