灭 (miè): to extinguish; to put out (fire)

Meanings

1 to extinguish; to put out (fire)
2 to destroy; to exterminate; to wipe out

Characters

灭

mie

to extinguish; to destroy; to perish

Examples

消防员很快把火灭了。

Xiāofáng yuán hěnkuài bǎ huǒ miè le.

The firefighters quickly put out the fire.

恐龙灭绝了。

Kǒnglóng mièjué le.

The dinosaurs went extinct.

请把灯灭了。

Qǐng bǎ dēng miè le.

Please turn off the light.

灭火器放在走廊里。

Mièhuǒqì fàngzài zǒuláng lǐ.

The fire extinguisher is in the hallway.

Tips

usage

Common compounds: 灭火 (put out fire), 灭火器 (fire extinguisher), 消灭 (annihilate), 灭绝 (extinct), 灭亡 (perish). 灭 carries a sense of finality — complete elimination.

usage

Simplified 灭 shows 一 (a lid) over 火 (fire) — putting a lid over fire to extinguish it.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Fire underneath the cover — also 灭's indexing radical. The traditional 滅 had 氵 (water) plus a 戌 phonetic; the 1956 simplification abandoned the phonetic in favor of this transparent compound ideograph: lid + flame = extinguish. Same radical in 灯 (lamp), 烧 (burn), 烟 (smoke).

ideograph

一 yī

one (lid/cover)

Top horizontal — a lid or cover pressed down over the flames below. In the simplified 灭 this single stroke encodes the entire act of smothering: nothing semantic about 'one,' purely a positional indicator of cover-over-fire.