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惨败 (cǎn bài) — to suffer a crushing defeat, to be routed

Definition

惨 (cǎn) means 'tragic/cruel', so 惨败 paints the defeat as devastating and total, stronger than plain 失败 ('to lose') — the side is not just beaten but routed.

verb
to suffer a crushing defeatto be routed

Examples

  • 惨败。
    Wǒ men duì zài jué sài zhōng cǎn bài le.
    Our team suffered a crushing defeat in the final.
  • 惨败，。
    Nà jiā gōng sī zài shì chǎng shàng cǎn bài, hěn kuài jiù dǎo bì le.
    That company suffered a crushing defeat in the market and soon went bankrupt.
  • 惨败，。
    Tā cǎn bài zhī hòu méi yǒu fàng qì, jì xù nǔ lì.
    After his crushing defeat, he didn't give up and kept working hard.

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.

惨cǎnmiserable
败bàidefeat

惨 adds a sense of miserable or severe, and 败 is defeat, so the word means a crushing defeat.

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 慘; 惨 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
參
參cān慘cǎn
Same sound today

The traditional form 慘 puts 心 (heart) with 參 as its sound part. The simplified 惨 is a later shorthand, so its shape is not the historical form.

Open 惨 →

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 敗; 败 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
攵Written in full as攴pūstrike
Sound part声符shēngfú
貝
貝bèi敗bài
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 敗 has 貝 as the sound component and 攴 (written 攵) meaning strike. The simplified 败 is a later abbreviation, so its parts are not the original components.

Open 败 →
Appears in
Success & Failure

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