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思绪 (sī xù) — train of thought; flow of thoughts; emotional state; feelings; state of mind

Definition

思绪 emphasizes the flowing, drifting quality of one's thoughts — 'train of thought' or where the mind wanders. 心情 and 情绪 are more about current mood; 思绪 is closer to 心声, the 'inner voice' of one's thinking.

noun
train of thoughtflow of thoughtsemotional statefeelingsstate of mind

Examples

  • ，思绪。
    Wǒ zhèng xiě zuò yè, bù xiǎng sī xù bèi dǎ duàn.
    I'm doing homework and don't want my train of thought to be interrupted.
  • ，思绪。
    Miàn duì zhè ge jué dìng, tā de sī xù hěn fù zá.
    Facing this decision, his feelings and thoughts were very complicated.
  • ，思绪。
    Tā wàng zhe yuǎn fāng, sī xù piāo xiàng le yáo yuǎn de guò qù.
    She looked into the distance, and her thoughts drifted to the remote past.

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.

思sīthought
绪xùthread

思 means thought and 绪 means a thread or sequence, so 思绪 is the thread of thoughts.

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

In 思, 心 (heart) points to thinking, while the top part is a changed form of 囟, which supplied the sound.

Open 思 →

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 緒; 绪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
糹Written in full as糸mì
Sound part声符shēngfú
者
者zhě緒xù
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 緒 has 糹 (silk) and 者; 者 gives the sound. The simplified 绪 is not the form described here.

Open 绪 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Thinking & Cognition

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