缝 (fèng): seam (in a garment)

Measure Word

一道缝 dào

Meanings

1 seam (in a garment)
2 crack; fissure; narrow gap
3 chink; crevice

Characters

缝

fèng

seam (in a garment)

Examples

门和门框之间有一道缝。

Mén hé ménkuàng zhījiān yǒu yī dào fèng.

There's a crack between the door and the frame.

用牙线清理牙缝。

Yòng yáxiàn qīnglǐ yáfèng.

Floss out the gap between your teeth.

他的计划天衣无缝。

Tā de jìhuà tiānyīwúfèng.

His plan was flawless.

Tips

usage

fèng names the gap or seam itself — the result of two surfaces meeting (or failing to). Common compounds: 门缝 (door gap), 牙缝 (gap between teeth), 裂缝 (crack), 缝隙 (chink, small space), 无缝 (seamless). The classic idiom 见缝插针 (literally 'see a gap, stick in a needle') means making use of every available scrap of time or space — fèng for the gap, the verb sense doesn't enter.

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread (radical, left-side form of 糸)

Left silk radical — the simplified side-form of 糸. Marks 缝 as a thread action: stitching, sewing, joining cloth. Same radical anchors the entire fabric-and-fiber family: 织 (to weave), 绣 (to embroider), 线 (thread), 绳 (rope), 纺 (to spin).

phonetic

逢 féng

to meet, encounter (phonetic)

Right side 逢 supplies the sound — féng exact match. 逢 itself means 'to meet, come together,' which doubles beautifully as a memory hook: sewing brings two pieces of cloth together where they meet. A near-perfect phono-semantic compound where the phonetic carries genuine meaning support.