功
meritorious deed or service / achievement / result / service / accomplishment / work (physics)
功 character breakdown
power / force / strength / ability / strenuously
力
=
㇆
+
丿
:
Mnemonic symbol: a power button.
Li Qingzhao (li) just had a shower in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) and wants to use the hair dryer, but there's no plug, just the bare end of the cable! She uses all her power to build an electricity plug, and for the two pins she uses a plough (㇆) and a banana (丿). Finally she hits a big power button (力) to turn the power on.
Li Qingzhao (li) just had a shower in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) and wants to use the hair dryer, but there's no plug, just the bare end of the cable! She uses all her power to build an electricity plug, and for the two pins she uses a plough (㇆) and a banana (丿). Finally she hits a big power button (力) to turn the power on.
work / worker / skill / profession / trade / craft / labor
工
=
二
+
丨
:
Mnemonic symbol: a steel beam, since 工 looks like the cross section of a steel beam. In front of the engine ((e)ng1), Gitta Giraffe (gu) is doing some hard work: She's stacking a capacitor (二) on a dinosaur bone (丨) on a capacitor (二). She's not very successful, but then she gets the idea to use steel beams (工) as support.
Characters with 功 as component
功
is not used as a component in another character.
Words with 功
to waste all one's previous efforts (idiom) / all that has been achieved goes down the drain
half the work, twice the effect (idiom); the right approach saves effort and leads to better results / a stitch in time saves nine
lit. not aiming to achieve the best possible result, but rather trying to avoid making mistakes (idiom) / fig. to take a risk-averse approach