激烈
jī​liè HSK4

intense

激 jī, ji excite, provoke

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 敫 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

敫
敫 Sound component
jiǎo, qiāo, jiào shining light

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkek[k]ˤewk dam up (water)

說文解字

《說文》：“激，水礙衺疾波也。从水，敫聲。一曰半遮也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

烈 liè fiery, intense

Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 列 represents the sound.

Components

列
列 Sound component
liè arrange
灬
灬 Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Xin 9-23 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartljet[r]at blazing; brilliant

說文解字

《說文》：“烈，火猛也。从火，聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)