十二地支
shí èr dì zhī
Pinyin

Definition

十二地支
 - 
shí èr dì zhī
  1. the 12 earthly branches 子[zǐ], 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥 (used cyclically in the calendar and as ordinal numbers)

Character Decomposition

Related Words (20)

二
èr
  1. 1 two
  2. 2 2
  3. 3 (Beijing dialect) stupid
十
shí
  1. 1 ten
  2. 2 10
地
de
  1. 1 -ly
  2. 2 structural particle: used before a verb or adjective, linking it to preceding modifying adverbial adjunct
地主
dì zhǔ
  1. 1 landlord
  2. 2 landowner
  3. 3 host
地址
dì zhǐ
  1. 1 address
  2. 2 classifier: 个 gè

Idioms (20)

一不做，二不休
yī bù zuò , èr bù xiū
  1. 1 don't do it, or don't rest (idiom); either give up, or go through to the end
  2. 2 Since we started, we must carry it through whatever happens.
  3. 3 in for a penny, in for a pound
一干二净
yī gān èr jìng
  1. 1 thoroughly (idiom)
  2. 2 completely
  3. 3 one and all
  4. 4 very clean
一五一十
yī wǔ yī shí
  1. 1 lit. count by fives and tens (idiom); to narrate systematically and in full detail
一个天南，一个地北
yī ge tiān nán , yī ge dì běi
  1. 1 to live miles apart (idiom)
一传十，十传百
yī chuán shí , shí chuán bǎi
  1. 1 news pass quickly from mouth to mouth (idiom)
  2. 2 an infectious disease spreads quickly (old meaning)

Sample Sentences

开个玩笑嘛，何必这么认真？大家都知道，这些动物是搭配着咱们老祖宗发明的“干支纪年法”来的，十二地支对应到十二种动物。
kāigewánxiào ma ，hébì zhème rènzhēn ？dàjiā dōu zhīdào ，zhèxiē dòngwù shì dāpèi zhe zánmen lǎo zǔzōng fāmíng de “gānzhī jìniánfǎ ”lái de ，shíèr dìzhī duìyìng dào shí èr zhǒng dòngwù 。
I was only joking around, why are you being so serious? Everyone knows that these twelve animals go along with the Stems-and-Branches cycle used by our ancestors to record years, each of the 12 earthly branches corresponds to an animal.
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