■ radical

jué

to decide

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 夬 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burst open". The meaning later shifted to "clear", "cut off", "decide" and "judge".

氵

meaning

water — 氵 is a component form of 水.

夬

sound

decisive — The pronunciation of 決 was similar to 夬 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. 夬 also serves as a meaning component.

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