Chinlingo Chinese character: 词 and 词汇

[Do you know?]

In spoken Chinese, "词" and "词汇" are usually interchangeable. "词汇" means "词" as well, but they differ from each other in some cases. 

[Definitions]

词 (cí): word; speech or words in a poem, article or opera; a form of classical Chinese poetry originating in the Song Dynasty, which is called "宋词" (sònɡ cí).

词汇 (cí huì): vocabulary

[Uses]

"词" can be modified by a measure word, while "词汇" can not.

Examples

√ 这部词典一共有五万多个词。(zhè bù cí diǎn yí ɡònɡ yǒu wǔ wàn duō ɡè cí)

  This dictionary has over 50,000 word entries.  

X 这部词典一共有五万多个词汇。

√ 这个词是什么意思？(zhè ɡe cí shì shén me yì si)

What does this word mean?

X 这个词汇是什么意思？

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