寂 (jì): silent

Meanings

1 silent
2 solitary
3 lonely
4 still

Characters

寂

jì

silent / still / lonely

Examples

深夜一片寂静。

Shēnyè yīpiàn jìjìng.

Deep in the night, there is complete silence.

他独自坐在寂寞的房间里。

Tā dúzì zuò zài jìmò de fángjiān lǐ.

He sat alone in the lonely room.

Tips

register

寂 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese. It functions in classical or literary texts and appears in common compounds: 寂静 (silence), 寂寞 (loneliness), 孤寂 (solitary). Note the variant Taiwan pronunciation [jí].

Components

radical

宀 mián

roof; house cover

Top roof radical signals an indoor scene. The indexing radical, putting 寂 in the home family with 家 home, 宁 peaceful, 寒 cold. Here it gives the image of an empty room — silence under one's own roof — from which came the meaning "still, silent, lonely."

phonetic

叔 shū

uncle; pick up (here phonetic)

Bottom 叔 supplies the sound — shū drifting to jì through long phonetic erosion (well-attested in the same sound family). 叔 contributes no transparent meaning; in 寂 the loneliness sense comes entirely from "an empty interior under the roof." Common collocations: 寂静 silent, 孤寂 lonely, 寂寞 lonesome.