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火烧 (huǒ shāo) — to burn; to destroy by fire

Definition

Verb meaning to set fire to / burn down. Different from the noun 烧 (shao), which refers to the act of cooking or heating.

verb
to burnto destroy by fire

Examples

  • 火烧。
    Dí jūn huǒ shāo le cūn zhuāng.
    The enemy burned the village.
  • 火烧。
    Zhè xiē wén jiàn bì xū huǒ shāo diào.
    These documents must be burned away.
  • 火烧。
    Tā men jì huà huǒ shāo suǒ yǒu lā jī.
    They plan to burn all the trash.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

火huǒfire
烧shāoburn

火 and 烧 together express fire burning.

Characters in this word

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

火 is a simple drawing of a fire, with flames shown rising upward.

Open 火 →

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 燒; 烧 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
火火huǒfire
Sound part声符shēngfú
堯
堯yáo燒shāo
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 燒 pairs 火 (fire) with 堯, which supplies the sound; the simplified 烧 is a shorthand.

Open 烧 →
Appears in
Safety & Danger

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