剪影

jiǎnyǐng
noun #33,299

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 silhouette
  2. 2 paper-cut profile
  3. 3 (figurative) brief sketch / vignette / outline

Examples

Xīyáng xià, tā de jiǎnyǐng xiǎnde géwài xiūcháng.
In the sunset, his silhouette appeared especially tall and slender.
Zhè běn zázhì dēng le yì zǔ xiàoyuán shēnghuó jiǎnyǐng.
This magazine ran a series of campus life vignettes.

Tips

usage
Two senses: literal silhouette (a dark profile against light) and a journalistic "vignette" — a short sketch of a scene or person. Headlines like 城市生活剪影 ("city life vignettes") use the second meaning.
memory
"to scissor / cut" + "shadow" → cut-out shadow = silhouette. The word literally describes the 19th-century paper-cut portrait technique.

Stroke Order

jiǎn
yǐng