Taxonomy of meanings for 劇:　　

  • 劇 jù (OC: ɡlaɡ MC: ɡɯiak) 奇逆切 入 廣韻：【増也一曰艱也又姓史記燕有劇辛竒逆切六 】
    • DIFFICULT
      • nsubjectwhat is difficult; the burdensome; troublesome tasks
      • nabfactualtroublesome tasks
      • vioccasionally: be troublesome to deal with, critical XINLUN 劇如此
    • IMPORTANT
      • vigradedimportant 甚劇
    • INTENSELY
      • vadNintense, virulent (of diseases etc)
    • MANY
      • vibe many 事劇而功寡
      • vtoNcausativemultiply, increase in number > exacerbate
    • QUICK
      • vadVquickly; abruptly
      • vibe quick and dramatic　　YANG XIONG 二世而亡，何其劇與。
    • SURPASS
      • vt(oN)surpass (the contextually determinate person)
      • vt+prep+Nsurpass
      • vtoNsurpass
    • GAME
      • JOKE
        • CROSS-ROADS
        • DRAMA
        • HATE
          • BREAK OFF
            • CASTRATE
              • REGIONS
                • SURNAMES

                  Additional information about 劇

                  說文解字: 　　 【劇】，尤甚也。从刀、未詳。豦聲。 【渠力切】

                    Criteria
                  • CROSSROADS

                    1. Qú 衢 refers generally to an intersection of roads, either in a city or in the countryside, from which one can move in four or more directions, once in CC even nine directions.

                    2. Chōng 衝 refers to such an intersection especially as a centre of communications.

                    3. Jiē 街 is sometimes used to refer to a cross-road within a city.

                    ERYA 一達謂之道路；二達謂之歧旁；三達謂之劇旁；四達謂之衢；五達謂之康；六達謂之莊；七達謂之劇驂；八達謂之崇期；九達謂之逵。 is a wonderful example of rationalisation in lexicography.

                  • DIFFICULT

                    1. The clearly dominant word for anything that is hard to achieve or hard to sustain is nán 難 (ant. yì 易 "easy").

                    2. Jiān 艱 refers to hardship and diffuculties, typically with respect to certain tasks.

                    3. Jù 劇 "critical, virulent" sometimes has usages that come close to "troublesome, difficult".

                    Word relations
                  • Ant: (MANY)寡/FEW Guǎ 寡 (ant. zhòng 眾 "numerous" and occasionally also duō 多 "large in quantity") typically refers specifically humans not being numerous as opposed to larger groups of humans, but the word comes to refer also to any quantity being relatively large (五穀多寡 "the relative abundance of grain") and I have not found a systematic difference in nuance with shǎo 少 when the word is so used, except for the generally subjective intuition that guǎ 寡 being the dominant word in early times, perhaps retained a somewhat more dignified stylistic value throughout.
                  • Assoc: (INTENSELY)篤/INTENSELY
                  • Assoc: (INTENSELY)篤/INTENSELY