缝 (fèng): seam (in a garment)

Measure Word

一道缝 dào

Meanings

1 seam (in a garment)
2 crack; fissure; narrow gap
3 chink; crevice

Characters

缝

fèng

seam (in a garment)

Examples

HSK 5

用牙线清理牙缝。

Yòng yáxiàn qīnglǐ yáfèng.

Floss out the gap between your teeth.

HSK 7-9

门和门框之间有一道缝。

Mén hé ménkuàng zhījiān yǒu yī dào fèng.

There's a crack between the door and the frame.

HSK 7-9

他的计划天衣无缝。

Tā de jìhuà tiānyī-wúfèng.

His plan was flawless.

Tips

usage

fèng names the gap or seam itself - the result of two surfaces meeting (or failing to). Common compounds: 门缝 (door gap), 牙缝 (gap between teeth), 裂缝 (crack), 缝隙 (chink, small space), 无缝 (seamless). The classic idiom 见缝插针 (literally 'see a gap, stick in a needle') means making use of every available scrap of time or space - fèng for the gap, the verb sense doesn't enter.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread (radical, left-side form of 糸)

Left silk radical - the simplified side-form of 糸. Marks 缝 as a thread action: stitching, sewing, joining cloth. Same radical anchors the entire fabric-and-fiber family: 织 (to weave), 绣 (to embroider), 线 (thread), 绳 (rope), 纺 (to spin).

phonetic

逢 féng

to meet, encounter (phonetic)

Right side 逢 supplies the sound - féng exact match. 逢 itself means 'to meet, come together,' which doubles beautifully as a memory hook: sewing brings two pieces of cloth together where they meet. A near-perfect phono-semantic compound where the phonetic carries genuine meaning support.