夺 (duó): to seize; to take by force

Meanings

1 to seize; to take by force
2 to compete for; to win (a prize)

Characters

夺

duó

to seize; to compete for

Examples

他夺得了金牌。

Tā duódé le jīnpái.

He won the gold medal.

战士们夺回了阵地。

Zhànshì men duóhuí le zhèndì.

The soldiers recaptured the position.

她的美丽光彩夺目。

Tā de měilì guāngcǎiduómù.

Her beauty is dazzling.

不能夺走别人的权利。

Bùnéng duó zǒu biéren de quánlì.

You cannot take away others' rights.

Tips

usage

夺 implies forceful or competitive action. Common compounds: 夺冠 (win the championship), 夺取 (seize/capture), 夺目 (dazzling, eye-catching), 争夺 (compete for).

Components

radical

大 dà

big; person with arms out

Top is the indexing radical 大, a person standing with arms outstretched. In the traditional 奪 the full graph showed a hand seizing a bird 隹 from beneath a robe 衣; the simplified form keeps just the human figure on top to carry the sense of a person doing the seizing.

semantic

寸 cùn

hand; thumb-measure

Bottom 寸 — a hand with a thumb-mark — depicts the seizing hand itself. The whole graph reads 'a person reaching down with a hand to grab,' giving the senses 'snatch, seize, wrest, capture, win.' 寸 carries the action-of-the-hand role across many seizing/holding chars (导, 封, 射).