坦克

tǎnkè
noun HSK 7 #5,338

Measure Word

坦克 liàng

Meanings

  1. 1 tank (armored military vehicle)

Characters

This is a phonetic transliteration of the English word 'tank.' The characters don't carry their usual meanings here.

Examples

Guǎngchǎng shàng tíng le yì pái tǎnkè.
A row of tanks was parked in the square.
Tǎnkè zài zhànchǎng shàng fāhuī le zhòngyào zuòyòng.
Tanks played an important role on the battlefield.

Tips

history
坦克 is one of the earliest military loanwords in Chinese, transliterated from English 'tank.' The English word itself was a deliberate code name — the British called their secret new weapon 'water tanks' to disguise its purpose during WWI.

Stroke Order

tǎn