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忘却 (wàng què) — to forget (literary, more formal than 忘记)

Definition

忘却 (wàngquè) is a literary, written-style verb meaning 'to forget' — more formal than the everyday 忘记. Often used in passive voice or with abstract nouns like pain, events, or memories.

verb
to forget (literary, more formal than 忘记)

Examples

  • 忘却。
    Nà xiē wǎng shì zǎo yǐ bèi wàng què le.
    Those past events have long been forgotten.
  • 忘却。
    Tā nǔ lì wàng què guò qù de shāng tòng.
    He tried hard to forget the pain of the past.
  • ，忘却。
    Suí zhe shí jiān de liú shì, rén men jiàn jiàn wàng què le nà ge míng zì.
    As time passed, people gradually forgot that name.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
补充bǔchōngVerb + complement

An action followed by its result or direction.

忘wàngforget
却quèaway/completed

“忘” (forget) and “却” (away/completed) form the literary sense of forgetting.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
亡
亡wáng忘wàng
Same sound today

忘 combines 亡, which gives the sound, with 心 (“heart”), showing the sense is about the heart or mind.

Open 忘 →

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 卻; 却 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
卩卩jié
Sound part声符shēngfú
𧮫
𧮫𧮫卻què
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 卻 uses 𧮫 for sound and 卩 for meaning; the simplified 却 is a shorthand.

Open 却 →
Appears in
Thinking & Cognition

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