蚁穴 (yǐ xué) — ant nest; small flaw or oversight that can lead…

Definition

Literally 'ant nest', but in modern usage it almost always means a tiny flaw that causes a huge failure. Comes from the proverb 千里之堤，溃于蚁穴.

noun

ant nestsmall flaw or oversight that can lead to catastrophe (metaphorical)

Measure word · 个

蚁穴。
Huā yuán lǐ yǒu yí gè hěn dà de yǐ xué.
There is a very big ant nest in the garden.
，蚁穴，。
Qiān lǐ zhī dī, kuì yú yǐ xué, wǒ men bù néng hū shì rèn hé xì jié.
A thousand-li dike collapses due to an ant nest — we cannot overlook any detail.
蚁穴。
Zhè ge chéng xù de yí gè xiǎo yǐ xué dǎo zhì le zhěng gè xì tǒng tān huàn.
A small flaw in this program caused the entire system to crash.

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.

蚁 (ant) specifies the kind of 穴 (hole), meaning an ant's nest.

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 蟻; 蚁 is its simplified writing.

虫義蟻

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

義

義yì蟻yǐ

Same sound today

The traditional form 蟻 pairs 虫 (insect) with 義 as a sound part; the simplified 蚁 is a shorthand, and its parts are not the historical components.

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

穴 possibly comes from a picture of a cave entrance or a door flap, matching meanings such as cave and hole.