跌 (diē): to fall; to tumble

Meanings

1 to fall; to tumble
2 to drop; to decline (prices, stocks)

Characters

跌

diē

to fall; to drop

Examples

小心别跌倒了。

Xiǎoxīn bié diēdǎo le.

Be careful not to fall.

股票跌了百分之十。

Gǔpiào diē le bǎifēnzhīshí.

The stock dropped by ten percent.

房价最近跌得很厉害。

Fángjià zuìjìn diē de hěn lìhài.

Housing prices have dropped sharply recently.

他从楼梯上跌了下来。

Tā cóng lóutī shàng diē le xiàlái.

He fell down the stairs.

Tips

usage

跌 vs 摔 (shuāi): Both mean 'to fall,' but 跌 is more commonly used for prices/stocks dropping. 摔 emphasizes a hard fall or breaking something.

memory

足 (foot) radical on the left — your foot slips and you fall.

Components

radical

足 zú

foot

Left foot radical, the indexing component (Kangxi 157). Pictures a leg with a foot at the bottom. Marks 跌 as a foot-action character: stumbling, tripping, falling are all things feet do. Same radical anchors 跑 (run), 跳 (jump), 路 (road), 踢 (kick).

phonetic

失 shī

to lose; to miss

Right-side 失 supplies the sound: shī shifts to diē, an unusually large drift through the dental-stop series. Beyond sound, 失 carries a faint semantic flavour — losing your footing leads to a fall, so the phonetic also hints at the action. Same idea anchors 跌 in the 'lose-and-fall' family.