HSK 5 · Body

寿命 shòumìng “life span” in Chinese

Traditional 壽命

What 寿命 means

  1. life span
  2. life expectancy
  3. lifetime (of a machine)

How to say 寿命

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale寿shòu4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale命mìng4th tone, falling

寿命 in a sentence

  1. 海龟的寿命很长。

    Hǎiguī de shòumìng hěn cháng.

    Sea turtles have a long lifespan.

    Sentence #1370617 from Tatoeba

  2. 女人通常比男人寿命长。

    Nǚrén tōngcháng bǐ nánrén shòumìng cháng.

    Women usually live longer than men.

    Sentence #9701594 from Tatoeba

  3. 合理地喂狗可以延长宠物寿命。

    Hélǐ de wèi gǒu kěyǐ yáncháng chǒngwù shòumìng.

    Feeding your dog properly can extend its lifespan.

    Sentence #8969818 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 寿命 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 寿 (shòu) with each of its parts in a different colour
寿shòulong life
  • 丰abundant · fēng
  • 寸inch · cùn
The character 命 (mìng) with each of its parts in a different colour
命mìnglife
  • 令command · líng
  • 口mouth · kǒu

How to write 寿命

寿 7 strokes · 命 8 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

寿命 (shòumìng) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 寿命 (shòumìng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 寿命

Words with 命

生命shēngmìng · life命令mìnglìng · order命运mìngyùn · fate性命xìngmìng · life (of a person or animal)命名mìngmíng · to name拼命pīnmìng · desperately任命rènmìng · to appoint革命gémìng · revolution使命shǐmìng · mission要命yàomìng · terribly

More words: People, Body & Health

身材shēncái · stature失眠shīmián · to suffer from insomnia手术shǒushù · (surgical) operation手指shǒuzhǐ · finger受伤shòushāng · to be injured胃wèi · stomach消化xiāohuà · to digest (food or information)心脏xīnzàng · heart

FAQs

寿命 (shòumìng) means “life span” or “life expectancy”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it shòumìng: shòu with a 4th tone, then mìng with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 寿命 is written 壽命. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shouming with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 寿命 from the suggestions. Typing shouming into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
寿命 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.