🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

火柴

Pronunciation / Transliteration: huǒchái

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Matchstick/ˈmætʃ.stɪk/
nounCEFR B1 (Intermediate)Top #14500 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"他划了一根火柴来点燃蜡烛。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A short, slender piece of wood or cardboard tipped with a combustible chemical mixture, used for striking a flame.

    "He struck a matchstick to light the candle in the dark room."
  2. 2

    Used metaphorically to describe something extremely thin, fragile, or resembling a slender stick.

    "The model's legs were as thin as matchsticks."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Synonyms (3)
Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from 'match' (from Old French 'mesche', meaning wick of a candle, ultimately from Latin 'myxa') combined with 'stick' (from Old English 'sticca'). The term evolved in the 19th century to describe a small strip of wood tipped with a chemical substance designed to catch fire by friction.

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