灭 miè to extinguish; to exterminate or wipe out; to drown; to put out
Made up of [火 huǒ fire radical 86, 一 yī one radical 1]Alternative traditional form of character: 滅
Made with 5 strokes.
The modern form is easy to remember it is 'fire' under a 'lid' and hence extinguished. The old form put out the fire with water
Related characters
Also uses 火 huǒ component: 灯 dēng (lamp) 烤 kǎo (to roast) 炮 pào (cannon) 秋 qiú (autumn) 灾 zāi (disaster) 炸 zhà (to explode)
Also uses 一 yī component: 百 bǎi (hundred) 丙 bǐng (third in order) 不 bù (no; not) 丑 chǒu (shameful) 旦 dàn (dawn) 德 dé (virtue) 画 huà (to draw) 或 huò (maybe) 疆 jiāng (border) 开 kāi (begin) 丽 lì (beautiful) 两 liǎng (pair) 蒙 měng (Mongol) 且 qiě (and) 世 shì (life) 与 yǔ (to give) 再 zài (again) 正 zhèng (correct)
Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Proverbs
蜡烛照亮别人,却毁灭了自己 là zhú zhào liàng bié rén, què huǐ miè le zì jǐ Helping others at the cost of not looking after yourself大义灭亲 dà yì miè qīn Prepared to kill one's own family to keep to the law. Back in the Spring and Autumn Period a father, Shi Que, uncovered the murder of the king of Wei was done by a treasonous group which included his own son Shi Hou. Believing he could not show him special treatment he had him executed.
灭此朝食 miè cǐ zhāo shí Grasp current opportunity; anxious to do battle. Tackle the important problem first.