刹那 (chà nà) — an instant, a split second

Definition

A literary/poetic word for 'an instant.' More elegant than 瞬间, which is the everyday spoken equivalent.

noun

an instanta split second

，。
Nà yí chà nà, tā zuò chū le zhèng què de xuǎn zé.
At that instant, he made the right choice.
刹那，。
chà nà Zhī jiān, tiān kōng liàng le yí xià.
In an instant, the sky lit up.
。
Tā zhī zài nà yí chà nà yóu yù le yí xià.
He hesitated for only that split second.

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

音译yīnyìTransliteration

The characters spell the sound of a foreign word; their individual meanings play no part.

The hanzi in 刹那 spell a foreign word for an instant and carry no meaning of their own here.

Sound-only characters

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 剎; 刹 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

刂Written in full as刀dāo

Sound part声符shēngfú

殺

殺shā剎shā

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 剎 combines 殺 for sound with 刂 (written fully as 刀, a knife) for meaning; the simplified 刹 is a later abbreviation.

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

邑邑yìcity

Sound part声符shēngfú

冄

冉rǎn那nà

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The right part 邑 shows a city, and the left part 冄 (written 冉) gives the sound. The character first named a state and was later used to mean 'that'.

Appears in