Definition

1. Verb (literary, formal):
   • To be parted by death; to be separated forever by death: Describes the permanent separation of individuals due to the death of one or more parties. It conveys a profound, final, and sorrowful parting.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Nỗi đau tử biệt thật khó nguôi ngoai. (The pain of being parted by death is hard to soothe.)
  • Câu chuyện kể về cuộc tử biệt đầy nước mắt giữa người mẹ và đứa con. (The story tells of a tearful parting-by-death between a mother and her child.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is almost exclusively used in formal, literary, or emotionally weighty contexts. It is a key component in the classical, proverbial phrase "tử biệt sinh ly".
• "tử biệt sinh ly": A set idiom meaning "the parting of death and the separation of life." It poetically encapsulates the two great sorrows of human existence: permanent separation by death and painful separation while still alive.
  • Chiến tranh gây ra cảnh tử biệt sinh ly cho bao gia đình. (War creates scenes of death-parting and life-separation for so many families.)

Variants and Related Words

• Sinh ly (v, literary): To be separated in life; to part ways while still alive.
  • Sinh ly đôi khi còn đau đớn hơn tử biệt. (Separation in life can sometimes be more painful than parting by death.)

Synonyms

• To be bereaved: To be deprived of a loved one by death.
• To be parted eternally: To be separated forever (implies by death).

Related Idioms

• Tử biệt sinh ly: As described above, this is the primary and most common idiom featuring the word. It represents the ultimate human sorrows of separation.