惨叫 (cǎn jiào) — to scream in pain; to shriek

Definition

verb

to scream in painto shriek

惨叫。
Shòu shāng de shì bīng fā chū le yī shēng cǎn jiào.
The injured soldier let out a scream of pain.
惨叫，。
Tīng dào nà zhī māo de cǎn jiào, tā gǎn jǐn pǎo guò qù kàn.
Hearing the cat's shriek, she quickly ran over to see.
惨叫。
Diàn yǐng lǐ de cǎn jiào shēng ràng rén gǎn dào fēi cháng kǒng bù.
The screaming in the movie made people feel very terrified.

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.

惨cǎnpainfully

「惨」 means painfully and 「叫」 means cry, so the action is to cry out painfully.

Characters in this word

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 慘; 惨 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

心心xīnheart

Sound part声符shēngfú

參

參cān慘cǎn

Same sound today

The traditional form 慘 puts 心 (heart) with 參 as its sound part. The simplified 惨 is a later shorthand, so its shape is not the historical form.

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

口丩叫

Meaning part形符xíngfú

口口kǒumouth

Sound part声符shēngfú

丩

丩jiū叫jiào

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

叫 shows a mouth 口 and a sound part 丩. The mouth fits the old sense of shouting.

Appears in