村 (cūn) · village

Meanings

1 village
2 rural; rustic

Characters

村

cūn

village

Contains 木 (tree) + 寸 (inch) - a small settlement among the trees.

Examples

HSK 1

这个村只有几百个人。

Zhège cūn zhǐ yǒu jǐbǎi gè rén.

This village has only a few hundred people.

HSK 3

他来自一个小村子。

Tā láizì yí gè xiǎo cūnzi.

He comes from a small village.

HSK 4

我们去农村玩了一天。

Wǒmen qù nóngcūn wán le yì tiān.

We went to the countryside for a day.

Tips

usage

村 is often combined with other words: 村子 (village - colloquial), 农村 (countryside/rural area), 村民 (villager), 村庄 (village - more literary).

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Tree radical on the left - anchors 村 in the natural-feature family alongside 林 (forest) and 树 (tree). A 村 was originally a settlement marked by a stand of trees, and the tree-grove image is still the easiest way to picture a Chinese village from across a valley.

phonetic

寸 cùn

inch

寸 (cùn) supplies the sound, drifting tone and initial slightly to cūn. It pictures a hand with a pulse-mark just below the wrist - the 'Chinese inch.' Used here purely for sound; the same phonetic also lurks in 忖 (ponder) and 衬 (line, set off).