阀门

• Pinyin: fá mén
• Hanzi breakdown: 阀 = 门 (door/gate) + 伐 (to cut/strike) — a gate mechanism that can cut off flow; 门 = pictograph of a double-leafed gate — door, gateway, valve

Meaning

Valve; a device that controls the flow of a fluid or gas through a pipe or conduit by opening, closing, or partially blocking it.

Used in engineering, plumbing, industrial, and metaphorical contexts. Figuratively, 阀门 can describe any mechanism that regulates the flow of something — information, emotion, resources — making it useful in policy and analytical discourse.

Examples

1. 管道工发现是一个老化的阀门失灵导致了此次严重的漏水事故，整栋楼的供水系统不得不全面停止检修。 The plumber found that a failed, aging valve caused the serious leak, and the entire building's water supply system had to be shut down for repairs.
2. 工程师在进行管道维护前，必须先关闭上游的主控阀门，以确保作业过程中不会有带压液体突然喷出造成事故。 Before performing pipeline maintenance, engineers must first close the upstream main control valve to ensure that pressurized liquid will not suddenly spray out and cause an accident during the work.
3. 这座水坝通过精密控制泄洪阀门的开合程度，在汛期将下游洪峰削减了约百分之四十，有效保障了沿岸居民的生命财产安全。 By precisely controlling how far the spillway valves open and close, the dam reduced the downstream flood peak by about 40% during flood season, effectively safeguarding the lives and property of nearby residents.

Usage Guide

Context: engineering, plumbing, industry, policy

Tone: technical

Do Say

• 化工流程中，每个阀门的开关状态都须实时监控。(In chemical production, the open or closed state of every valve must be monitored in real time.)
• 有分析人士将中央银行的利率调控机制比作金融体系中的阀门，通过收紧或放松货币供应来调节经济运行的节奏，防止通胀或通缩的极端情况出现。(Some analysts have compared the central bank's interest rate mechanism to a valve in the financial system, adjusting the pace of economic activity by tightening or loosening the money supply to prevent extreme situations of inflation or deflation.)

Don't Say

• 打开阀门水 — 阀门 needs a full verb phrase; say 打开阀门放水 or 拧开阀门，水就流出来了 for complete and natural phrasing

Origin & History

阀 (valve/gate mechanism) + 门 (door/gate) — a gate-like mechanism that controls flow through a channel

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal