缀 (zhuì) · to adorn, to embellish, to stitch/sew on

Meanings

1 to adorn
2 to embellish
3 to stitch/sew on
4 to connect
5 affix

Characters

缀

zhuì

to adorn/to stitch/to attach

Examples

HSK 4

她的裙子上缀满了小花。

Tā de qúnzi shang zhuì mǎn le xiǎo huā.

Her skirt was adorned all over with little flowers.

HSK 7-9

夜空中繁星点缀。

Yèkōng zhōng fánxīng diǎnzhuì.

The night sky was dotted with countless stars.

Tips

usage

缀 most commonly appears in the compound 点缀 (to embellish/add as a decorative touch) and in linguistic terms like 前缀 (prefix), 后缀 (suffix), 中缀 (infix). As a standalone verb, it has a literary, classical flavor.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk (radical form of 糸)

Left silk radical - the side-form of 糸, picturing twisted silk threads. The indexing element. The thread is the tool here: stitching, sewing, embroidering, and linking are all done with needle and silk. Puts 缀 in the thread family with 织 (weave), 纺 (spin), 绣 (embroider), 编 (knit), 缝 (sew).

phonetic

叕 zhuó

to join; connect

Right 叕 supplies the sound - zhuó drifting to zhuì through tone change. Beautifully, 叕 itself means 'to join': it pictures four 又 (right hands) reaching to grasp one another, the literal image of multiple things linking up. Combined with silk on the left, the picture is plain: silk + joining = sewing pieces together. Phonetic and semantic in one stroke.