绝 (jué) · to cut off; to sever

Meanings

1 to cut off; to sever
2 extinct; exhausted
3 absolute; superb

Characters

绝

jué

to cut off; absolute; superb

Examples

HSK 3

绝对不行！

Juéduì bùxíng!

Absolutely not!

HSK 4

这道菜味道一绝。

Zhè dào cài wèidào yī jué.

This dish tastes absolutely superb.

HSK 6

谈判失败后，两国断绝了来往。

Tánpàn shībài hòu, liǎng guó duànjué le láiwǎng.

After the negotiations failed, the two countries cut off contact.

Tips

usage

绝 appears in 绝对 (absolute), 拒绝 (to refuse), 绝望 (despair), 绝妙 (exquisite), 灭绝 (extinction), 绝不 (absolutely not).

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread (radical form)

Left silk radical - the simplified 3-stroke contraction of 糸/絲 (a hank of twisted threads). The indexing radical here. The original picture in 絕 was a knife cutting through bundled silk, hence 'to sever, cut off'. Same radical heads 红, 线, 给, 经 - the silk/thread/cloth family.

semantic

色 sè

color; appearance

Right component is graphically 色 'color', but here it is the simplified replacement for the original 巴+刀 (a knife slicing thread). The PRC reform borrowed 色's silhouette as a stylized stand-in; the meaning of 'color' does not enter 绝. Just remember the right side as 'the cutting half', whose original knife and seal-shape collapsed into this 6-stroke unit during simplification.