剪 (jiǎn): to cut with scissors

Meanings

1 to cut with scissors
2 to trim
3 to clip

Characters

剪

jiǎn

scissors; to cut with scissors

Examples

我需要剪头发了。

Wǒ xūyào jiǎn tóufa le.

I need to get a haircut.

她剪了一个短发。

Tā jiǎn le yīgè duǎnfà.

She cut her hair short.

帮我把这张纸剪一下。

Bāng wǒ bǎ zhè zhāng zhǐ jiǎn yīxià.

Help me cut this piece of paper.

Tips

usage

剪头发 (jiǎn tóufa, to get a haircut), 剪纸 (jiǎnzhǐ, paper cutting — a traditional Chinese art), 剪彩 (jiǎncǎi, to cut the ribbon at an opening ceremony).

Components

radical

刀 dāo

knife

Bottom 刀 — the indexing radical, picturing a single-edged blade. Declares 剪 a cutting action with a blade: scissors are two blades joined. Same blade family: 切 (slice), 分 (divide), 刻 (carve), 删 (delete). Note the standalone 刀 form is used here rather than the side-radical 刂 because 刀 sits at the bottom of the character.

phonetic

前 qián

before; front (here phonetic)

Top 前 supplies the sound (qián → jiǎn through a palatalization in this phonetic series) and a faint semantic hook: cutting is what trims the front edge of something. The kept-whole 前 is itself a recognized standalone with its own meaning, so it stays as one unit rather than being split. Same phonetic family: 箭 (arrow).