蝶 (dié): butterfly (bound form)

Meanings

1 butterfly (bound form)

Characters

蝶

dié

butterfly

Examples

HSK 5

花间飞舞着一只蝴蝶。

Huā jiān fēiwǔ zhe yī zhī húdié.

A butterfly danced among the flowers.

HSK 7-9

蝶泳是游泳比赛中难度最大的项目之一。

Diéyǒng shì yóuyǒng bǐsài zhōng nándù zuì dà de xiàngmù zhīyī.

Butterfly stroke is one of the most difficult events in swimming competitions.

Tips

usage

蝶 is a bound form - it almost never stands alone. In everyday speech, butterfly is 蝴蝶 (húdié). 蝶 appears in compounds like 蝶泳 (butterfly stroke in swimming) and 粉蝶 (white cabbage butterfly).

Components

radical

虫 chóng

insect; worm

Left insect radical - the indexing radical, pictograph of a coiled worm broadened in Chinese to cover all bugs. Anchors 蝶 in the insect family with 蜂 (bee), 蚊 (mosquito), 蜘蛛 (spider). Butterflies sit comfortably here as winged insects.

phonetic

枼 yè

thin leaf-like plate

Right side 枼 - a tree-graph stacked with a leafy plate on top, the ancestor of 叶 (leaf). Supplies the sound yè drifting to dié, and adds a perfect semantic flavor: butterfly wings are thin flat leaves of colour. Same phonetic appears in 碟 (small plate) and 谍 (spy, 'thin slip of paper').