断 (duàn): to break; to snap; to sever

Meanings

1 to break; to snap; to sever
2 to cut off; to disconnect
3 to judge; to decide

Characters

断

duàn

to break; to cut off; to judge

Examples

绳子断了。

Shéngzi duàn le.

The rope broke.

电话断了。

Diànhuà duàn le.

The phone got disconnected.

你不能断定他说的是假话。

Nǐ bùnéng duàndìng tā shuō de shì jiǎhuà.

You can't conclude that what he said is a lie.

网断了，上不了网。

Wǎng duàn le, shàng bù liǎo wǎng.

The internet is down, can't get online.

Tips

usage

断 is used in many compounds: 打断 (to interrupt), 判断 (to judge), 中断 (to interrupt/suspend), 断定 (to conclude), 不断 (continuously).

usage

不断 (bùduàn) means 'continuously/unceasingly' — literally 'not breaking.' Very common adverb.

Components

radical

斤 jīn

axe; catty

Right side 斤 is the indexing radical — an axe blade with handle. The whole character pictures an axe chopping through bound strands, exactly fitting the core meanings: to break, sever, decide (a judge cuts through the case). Same radical in 新 new (originally a fresh-cut), 析 analyse (split wood), 折 fold/snap.

semantic

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Left side is a 米-shape fused with a small enclosing stroke at top-left into a six-stroke unit. Historically the left side of 斷 was a tangle-of-silk-threads-being-severed graph; the 1956 reform redrew this as 米 plus the corner hook. Standalone 米 normally means rice, but here it carries the cut-bundle imagery directly.