楔 (xiē) · wedge, peg

Measure Word

一个楔 gè

Meanings

1 wedge
2 peg

Characters

楔

xiē

wedge / peg

Examples

HSK 7-9

木匠用楔子固定榫头。

Mùjiang yòng xiēzi gùdìng sǔn tóu.

The carpenter used a wedge to secure the mortise joint.

HSK 7-9

把楔打进去，门就不会晃了。

Bǎ xiē dǎ jìnqù, mén jiù bú huì huàng le.

Drive the wedge in and the door won't wobble.

Tips

usage

楔 alone is the character, but in everyday speech it most commonly appears as 楔子 (xiēzi), meaning a wedge or peg. 楔形 means wedge-shaped, as in 楔形文字 (cuneiform writing).

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Wood radical on the left, a pictograph of a tree. Indexes 楔 in the wood-object family with 板 board, 桩 stake, 柱 pillar. Marks the character as a wooden implement; combined with the cutting imagery on the right, narrows to a tapered block used to split or secure.

phonetic

契 qì

contract; engrave

Right side 契 supplies the sound through a drift: qì to xiē. 契 originally pictured a knife 刀 cutting tally marks into a surface, the act of incising. That cutting imagery doubles as a faint semantic hint: a wedge is what you drive into a cut to widen it.