叠

• Pinyin: dié
• Hanzi breakdown: 叠 = 宜 + 镸 + 又 (layered structure; one thing placed on top of another, repeatedly and orderly)

Meaning

To fold; to stack; to layer. To place things one on top of another in an orderly arrangement or to fold a piece of material.

叠 covers both stacking (叠放, 叠加) and folding (折叠, 叠衣服). 层层叠叠 describes layers upon layers. Used in everyday life, natural description, music (叠句, refrain/chorus), and physics (叠加原理, superposition principle). Versatile across registers.

Examples

1. 她把洗好晾干的衣物逐件叠好，整整齐齐地摆放在衣柜中，一丝不苟地保持着家里的整洁。 She folded each piece of washed, dried clothing and put it neatly in the closet, keeping the home spotless with meticulous care.
2. 山峦层层叠叠，在晨雾的笼罩下显得格外幽深神秘，宛如一幅浑然天成的水墨山水画卷。 Layer upon layer of mountains rose in the morning mist, looking especially deep and mysterious, like a natural ink-wash landscape painting.
3. 这份文件需要将所有附件按照编号顺序叠放整齐后，随主件一并提交给审核委员会存档备查。 This file requires that all attachments be stacked neatly in numerical order and submitted together with the main document to the review committee for the record.

Usage Guide

Context: everyday life, nature, science, description

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 把这些报告按日期叠好，放在办公桌左上角，方便领导随时翻阅查看。(Stack these reports in date order and place them in the upper-left corner of the desk so the manager can flip through them at any time.)
• 两个信号波形叠加后，频率特征发生了显著变化，这一现象在物理学中称为波的叠加原理。(After the two signal waveforms are superimposed, the frequency characteristics change significantly — this phenomenon is known in physics as the principle of wave superposition.)

Don't Say

• 叠电话 — unnatural; use 打电话 for making calls; 叠 refers to stacking or folding physical or abstract layers, not communication acts

Origin & History

叠 = 宜 + 镸 + 又 (pictographic layers — one thing placed upon another repeatedly)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal