遂 (suì): thereupon

Meanings

1 thereupon
2 then
3 consequently
4 finally
5 to succeed in
6 to satisfy

Characters

遂

suì

thereupon / to succeed / to fulfill

Examples

他苦练多年，遂成一代大师。

Tā kǔliàn duōnián, suì chéng yīdài dàshī.

He trained hard for many years and thereupon became a great master of his generation.

事情未能如愿，心愿未遂。

Shìqíng wèinéng rúyuàn, xīnyuàn wèisuì.

Things did not go as hoped; the wish went unfulfilled.

Tips

register

遂 is a classical/literary word. In modern writing it appears in formal texts and historical narratives. In everyday speech, 于是 or 就 are used instead. Note: 心愿未遂 means an unfulfilled wish.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

motion; walking (radical)

Bottom-left motion radical — the side-walk form indexing every character about moving along a path. Anchors 遂 in the family of forward motion: 进 (advance), 达 (reach), 遵 (follow). Here it gives the sense of 'proceeding to completion, succeeding, then thereupon' that defines 遂.

ideograph

丷 bā

splitting strokes

Two diverging strokes at the top — an abstract divider visually similar to 八, signalling 'spread apart' and marking the head of the 豕 pig pictograph below. Functions as a positional indicator. Together with 豕 these strokes form the phonetic stem suì also used in 队, 隧, 燧.

phonetic

豕 shǐ

pig

Middle 豕 — pictograph of a pig with bristled back and legs. Together with the two strokes above, it forms the phonetic body of 遂 carrying the sound suì. The pig itself does not contribute meaning; the whole top stack is sound, with the walking radical providing semantics.