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

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.

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.

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.

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