Abstract
This paper recognizes 3,004 monosyllabic words with 6,414 senses, after examining the single-character entries in A Dictionary of Modern Chinese, taking the definitions of the entries as a criterion. It has summarized three features of the monosyllabic words in modern Chinese, namely, simplicity of form, complexity of contents and high frequency of use. The paper determines that monosyllabic words are the core of basic vocabulary and the point of departure to describe the lexical system of modern Chinese.
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