洁白 (jié bái) — pure white, spotlessly white | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Literary 'spotlessly white', emphasizing purity of color (snow, clouds, fabric). 纯洁 highlights moral/emotional purity, not color.

adjective

pure whitespotlessly white

Examples

洁白。
Tā chuān zhuó yí jiàn jié bái de lián yī qún.
She is wearing a pure white dress.
洁白。
jié bái De yún duǒ zài lán tiān shàng piāo zhe.
Pure white clouds float in the blue sky.
洁白。
Zhè zhī jié bái de xiǎo māo zài shài tài yáng.
This pure white kitten is basking in the sun.

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.

洁 means clean and 白 means white, giving pure white.

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 潔; 洁 is its simplified writing.

氵絜潔

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

Sound part声符shēngfú

絜

絜jié潔jié

Same sound today

The traditional form 潔 pairs 氵, a water part, with 絜, which gives the sound; the simplified 洁 is a later abbreviation.

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

白 is thought to picture either an acorn or a human head.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 Colors

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