割 (gē): to cut; to sever

Meanings

1 to cut; to sever
2 to reap; to mow

Characters

割

gē

to cut; to sever

Examples

HSK 3

他不小心割破了手指。

Tā bù xiǎoxīn gēpò le shǒuzhǐ.

He accidentally cut his finger.

HSK 7-9

农民在割麦子。

Nóngmín zài gē màizi.

The farmers are reaping wheat.

HSK 7-9

用刀把绳子割断。

Yòng dāo bǎ shéngzi gēduàn.

Cut the rope with a knife.

Tips

usage

割韭菜 ('to cut leeks') is a hugely popular internet slang meaning 'to fleece people' or 'to harvest suckers.' It comes from how leeks grow back after being cut - scammers and companies keep coming back to exploit the same naive consumers.

Components

radical

刂 dāo

knife (right-side variant)

Right indexing radical 刂 (knife-variant of 刀) - anchors 割 in the cutting domain. Most cutting verbs live here: 切 (cut), 划 (slash), 剪 (scissor-cut), 刮 (scrape), 削 (peel). The two strokes resemble a vertical blade poised to slice.

phonetic

害 hài

harm (here phonetic)

Left component 害 supplies the sound (hài → gē, drifted velars in the same series - closer in older Chinese than modern Mandarin suggests). Bonus semantic: 害 means 'harm,' which fits 割's 'cutting' nicely. Same phonetic in 辖 (govern), 瞎 (blind), and the near-cousin 豁 (split open).