无视 (wú shì) — to disregard; to ignore; to pay no attention to

Definition

无视 is a formal verb meaning to deliberately disregard or ignore something one should pay attention to (warnings, rules, advice). It implies willful inattention, stronger than the everyday 忽略.

verb

to disregardto ignoreto pay no attention to

Examples

无视。
Tā wán quán wú shì le wǒ de jiàn yì.
He completely disregarded my suggestion.
无视。
Wǒ men bù néng wú shì fǎ lǜ de cún zài.
We cannot ignore the existence of the law.
无视。
Tā wú shì le suǒ yǒu de jǐng gào.
She disregarded all the warnings.

Origin

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.

无wúnot

视shìlook

无 means not or without and 视 means to look or regard, so the word means to pay no attention.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 無; 无 is its simplified writing.

For the simplified 无, the story is about 無. 無 drew a person dancing with ox tails held in both hands to pray for rain, then was borrowed for 'have no', so the picture does not explain that meaning.

Open 无 →

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 視; 视 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

見見jiànsee

Sound part声符shēngfú

示

示shì視shì

Same sound today

The story is about the traditional form 視: it combines 見, meaning see, with 示, which gives the sound shì.

Open 视 →

Appears in