下陷 (xià xiàn) — (verb) to sink in, to cave in, to become sunken…

Definition

verb

to sink into cave into become sunken or hollowto form a depression

Easily confused

下陷，。
Dì miàn xià xiàn le, xíng chéng le yí gè kēng.
The ground sank, forming a pit.
下陷。
Tā shēng bìng hòu yǎn jing shēn shēn de xià xiàn.
After he got sick, his eyes were deeply sunken.
，下陷。
Bào yǔ guò hòu, mǎ lù chū xiàn le míng xiǎn de xià xiàn.
After the heavy rain, the road had obvious depressions.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

下xiàdownward

下 means downward and 陷 means sink, so together they mean to sink in.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

下 is drawn as a short horizontal line below a long curved line.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

阜阜fù

Sound part声符shēngfú

臽

臽xiàn陷xiàn

Same sound today

In 陷, the older form 臽 pictured falling into a trap; 阜 was added later to differentiate it.