净 (jìng): clean; pure

Meanings

1 clean; pure
2 net (weight/profit)
3 only; nothing but

Characters

净

jìng

clean; pure; only

Examples

请把手洗干净。

Qǐng bǎshǒu xǐ gānjìng.

Please wash your hands clean.

净重500克。

Jìng zhòng wǔ bǎi kè.

Net weight: 500 grams.

他净说废话。

Tā jìng shuōfèihuà.

He talks nothing but nonsense.

Tips

usage

净 is used in: 干净 (clean), 净化 (to purify), 净利 (net profit), 净重 (net weight). In colloquial speech, 净 can mean 'only/nothing but': 他净开玩笑 (He does nothing but joke around).

Components

radical

冫 bīng

ice (two-drops radical)

Left two-drops ice radical — the indexing radical in modern 净. Historically the character used three-drops water 氵 (still preserved in traditional 淨), naming a north-gate moat in Lu state. Simplification swapped 氵 for 冫, joining 冷 cold and 凉 cool by appearance, not origin.

phonetic

争 zhēng

to contend; to argue

Right 争 supplies the sound — zhēng drifting to jìng through the well-attested zh/j palatalisation, then a tone shift. Pictures two hands grabbing the same object. Purely phonetic in 净; the 'contention' meaning doesn't carry over to the cleanness/purity sense.