尽 (jǐn): to the greatest extent

Meanings

1 to the greatest extent
2 as far as possible; as much as possible
3 within the limits of
4 to give priority to

Characters

尽

jǐn

to the greatest extent

Examples

请尽快回复我。

Qǐng jǐnkuài huífù wǒ.

Please reply to me as soon as possible.

我会尽量早到。

Wǒ huì jǐnliàng zǎo dào.

I'll try my best to arrive early.

尽管下着雨，他还是出门了。

Jǐnguǎn xià zhe yǔ, tā háishì chūmén le.

Even though it was raining, he still went out.

Tips

usage

As jǐn, 尽 means 'within the maximum allowed' or 'give priority to': 尽量 / 尽可能 (as much as possible), 尽快 / 尽早 (as soon as possible). 尽管 adds two senses: as a conjunction = 'although / even though,' and as an adverb = 'go ahead and (do it) without hesitation' (尽管问 — feel free to ask).

memory

Simplified 尽 merges two traditional characters: 儘 (as far as possible) and 盡 (to exhaust). The jǐn reading inherits 儘, which has the person radical 亻 on the left — think 'a person stretching to their LIMIT.' That captures jǐn: pushing to the maximum allowed, but stopping at the boundary.

Components

radical

尺 chǐ

ruler; foot (here graphic)

Top portion has the 尺 silhouette and gives the indexing radical 尸 (body). The modern 尽 is a heavy simplification of two distinct traditional characters (儘 'as much as possible' and 盡 'exhaust') — neither original phonetic survived. Treat the 尺 outline here as a structural shell.

ideograph

⺀ diǎn

two dots (graphic residue)

Two small dots inside the shell. In the traditional 盡, this slot held a hand 又 with a brush sweeping out the last contents of a vessel 皿 — the literal act of using something up. The simplified 尽 collapsed all of that to two dots; learn it as an abstract residue rather than a productive component.