城 (chéng) · city, city walls, town

Meanings

1 city
2 city walls
3 town

Characters

城

chéng

city; city wall

Contains the 土 (earth) radical - ancient city walls were built from rammed earth.

Examples

HSK 2

进城去买东西。

Jìnchéng qù mǎi dōngxi.

Go into town to buy things.

HSK 4

这座城有很长的历史。

Zhè zuò chéng yǒu hěn cháng de lìshǐ.

This city has a long history.

HSK 5

长城是中国的象征。

Chángchéng shì Zhōngguó de xiàngzhēng.

The Great Wall is a symbol of China.

Tips

usage

城 originally meant 'city walls' and by extension came to mean the city itself. Common compounds: 城市 (city), 长城 (Great Wall), 城镇 (towns).

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

Left earth radical, a small mound of soil rising from a ground line. Supplies the meaning: a wall or city raised from packed earth. Ancient Chinese cities were defined by their rammed-earth ramparts, and this radical marks 城 as a place built up from the soil rather than something you do or feel.

phonetic

成 chéng

to complete

Right 成 supplies the sound - exact match, chéng with no drift. It also contributes a faint semantic echo: a city is something 'completed, made whole' through walling and gates. Same phonetic family includes 诚 (sincere), 盛 (flourishing), 晟, all sharing the chéng/shèng phonetic series.