què / quē
noun #46,155

Meanings

  1. 1 watchtower flanking a palace gate
  2. 2 the imperial palace
  3. 3 fault; deficiency

Examples

Gōngmén qián chùlì zhe liǎng zuò chéng què.
Twin watchtowers stood before the palace gate.
Cí jù " wǒ yù chéngfēng guīqù " lǐ de tiān què zhǐ tiānshàng de gōngdiàn.
The poem's line 'I wish to ride the wind back to the celestial palace' uses 阙 for the heavenly court.

Tips

history
城阙 were the tall paired towers built either side of a palace or city gate. By extension came to stand for the imperial palace itself, as in the Song poem line 天上宫阙 ('the palace halls in the sky').

Components

radical
mén
gate; door
The gate radical, wrapping the character. It fits because are the watchtowers that flank a palace gate, the structure standing guard at the entrance.
phonetic
jué
to dig out; to exhaust
Sits inside the gate and supplies the sound (jué shifting to què). It also lends a faint sense of a gap or hollow, matching the 'deficiency' meaning.

Stroke Order

què