失真

shīzhēn

verb #36,009

Meanings

1 to be distorted; to lose fidelity
2 (of a signal, sound, image) distortion
3 to no longer match the original

Characters

Examples

HSK 5

音量调得太大,声音失真了。

Yīnliàng tiáo de tài dà, shēngyīn shīzhēn le.

The volume is too high - the sound is distorted.

HSK 6

这张照片放大后失真严重。

Zhè zhāng zhàopiàn fàngdà hòu shīzhēn yánzhòng.

This photo loses a lot of fidelity when enlarged.

HSK 7-9

传话过程中,信息很容易失真。

Chuánhuà guòchéng zhōng, xìnxī hěn róngyì shīzhēn.

Information easily gets distorted as it's passed along.

Tips

memory

失 ('to lose') + 真 ('the true/real') - 'to lose the truth'. Works for both technical signal-distortion contexts and metaphorical contexts where a story or image no longer matches reality.

Stroke Order

失 shī

真 zhēn