省 (shěng) — to save, to economize; to omit, to leave out

Definition

省 (shěng) is an everyday verb covering both 'to save/economize' and 'to omit/leave out'. For saving money or effort, 节省 is more emphatic; for deleting text, 删 or 删除 is clearer than the 'omit' sense of 省.

verb
to saveto economizeto omitto leave out

Examples

  • 省。
    Zhè ge yuè wǒ yào shěng yì diǎn qián.
    I want to save a little money this month.
  • 省。
    Zuò huǒ chē bǐ zuò fēi jī shěng hěn duō qián.
    Taking the train saves a lot of money compared to flying.
  • ,。
    Xiě zuò wén shí, zhè ge lì zi kě yǐ shěng diào.
    When writing an essay, this example can be omitted.

Origin

Sound + meaning
六书liùshū
形声xíngshēng

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

The upper part of 省 is a changed form of 生, which gave the sound, while the lower 目 is an eye; the picture showed looking closely or inspecting.

Browse more HSK 5 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.