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不懈 (bù xiè) — untiring; unremitting; indefatigable

Definition

不懈 describes effort that goes on without slackening over time. 顽强 focuses on withstanding difficulty or opposition — use 顽强 for people, 不懈 for sustained effort.

adjective
untiringunremittingindefatigable
Easily confused

Examples

  • 不懈。
    bù xiè De nǔ lì shì chéng gōng de guān jiàn.
    Untiring effort is the key to success.
  • 不懈。
    Tā bù xiè dì zhuī qiú zì jǐ de mèng xiǎng.
    He relentlessly pursues his own dreams.
  • 不懈，。
    Jīng guò shí duō nián de bù xiè fèn dòu, gōng sī zhōng yú shàng shì le.
    After more than a decade of unremitting struggle, the company finally went public.

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.

不bùnot
懈xièslack

不 negates 懈 (slack), so the sense is 'not slack, untiring'.

Characters in this word

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

The picture in 不 originally showed a flower’s calyx; the “no” sense came later from a related character, not from this picture.

Open 不 →

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
忄Written in full as心xīn
Sound part声符shēngfú
解
解jiě懈xiè
Same sound today

懈 combines 忄, a shortened form of 心 (heart), with 解, which gives the sound.

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Personality & Traits

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.