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绝境 (jué jìng) — hopeless situation; impasse; inaccessible or isolated place

Definition

Literary word combining 绝 ('cut off') + 境 ('place/situation'), so it covers both senses: a hopeless predicament (濒临绝境) and a remote, isolated place reached only with great difficulty.

noun
hopeless situationimpasseinaccessible or isolated place

Examples

  • ，绝境。
    Gōng sī jīng yíng bú shàn, bīn lín jué jìng.
    The company is poorly managed and on the verge of a hopeless situation.
  • 绝境。
    Tàn xiǎn duì bèi kùn zài shēn shān lǐ de jué jìng.
    The exploration team was trapped in an inaccessible place deep in the mountains.
  • 绝境，。
    Miàn lín jué jìng shí, tā yī rán bǎo chí lěng jìng.
    When facing a hopeless situation, he still remained calm.

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.

绝juéhopeless
境jìngplace

绝 gives the sense of hopeless or cut off, and 境 names the place or situation.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 絕; 绝 is its simplified writing.

In the traditional form 絕, 刀 (knife) and 幺 (silk) show a knife cutting silk threads. The simplified 绝 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the original picture.

Open 绝 →

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
土土tǔearth
Sound part声符shēngfú
竟
竟jìng境jìng
Same sound today

境 pairs 土 (earth) with 竟, which gives the sound; the 土 part carries the meaning.

Open 境 →
Appears in
Abstract Concepts

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