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

miè

to extinguish; to destroy; to perish

Examples

HSK 3

请把灯灭了。

Qǐng bǎ dēng miè le.

Please turn off the light.

HSK 6

消防员很快把火灭了。

Xiāofáng yuán hěnkuài bǎ huǒ miè le.

The firefighters quickly put out the fire.

HSK 7-9

恐龙灭绝了。

Kǒnglóng mièjué le.

The dinosaurs went extinct.

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.