Abstract: The phenomenon that language users often adopt the concise measureword structure to achieve rich meanings has been widely noticed.Although touched upon by some scholars，the definition of such a phenomenon deserves further discussions.Based on an analysis of some given definitions，this paper defines the phenomenon as “measureword collocation variation”，namely，the phenomenon that language users，under particular contexts，adopt the measureword structure and the unconventional collocation of measure words (provisional) and nouns (nominal elements)，or of morphemes and nouns (nominal elements)，to convey feelings and meanings，so as to achieve particular rhetorical effects.The phenomenon consists mainly of two cases：the mutual borrowing between conventional measurewords，and the application of other parts of speech or morphemes.It is hoped that the redefinition of such a phenomenon would promote further research upon it.

Key words: measureword, variation, collocation, borrowing, flexible use, definition