灭火 (miè huǒ) — to put out a fire; to stop an engine, to cut ou…

Definition

A verb meaning 'put out a fire' literally, also used for shutting down a vehicle's engine. Built from 灭 (extinguish) + 火 (fire).

verb

to put out a fireto stop an engineto cut out (a vehicle's engine)

灭火。
Xiāo fáng yuán zhèng zài miè huǒ.
The firefighters are putting out the fire.
。
Tā men miè le yí cì huǒ.
They put out a fire once.
灭火。
Sī jī bǎ fā dòng jī miè huǒ le.
The driver cut out the engine.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

灭mièextinguish

灭 means extinguish and 火 is the fire being put out.

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 滅; 灭 is its simplified writing.

氵烕滅

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

烕

烕miè滅miè

Same sound today

The traditional form 滅 pairs 氵 (water) with 烕 as a sound part to mean extinguish by water; the simplified 灭 is a later shorthand.

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.

Appears in