‘剪辑’ (jiǎn jí) is a verb meaning ‘to edit’—specifically video, film, or audio content. It combines two characters: 剪 (jiǎn), meaning ‘to cut’ or ‘to trim’, and 辑 (jí), which means ‘to compile’ or ‘to assemble’. Together, they convey the core idea of cutting out unwanted segments and assembling the remaining pieces into a coherent final product. This term is widely used in filmmaking, broadcasting, digital media production, and even amateur content creation on platforms like Bilibili or Douyin.

While ‘剪辑’ can occasionally appear as a noun (e.g., ‘视频剪辑’ = ‘video editing’), its primary grammatical function is verbal. It’s commonly used with objects (e.g., 剪辑视频, 剪辑纪录片), aspect particles (了, 过, 着), and directional complements (剪辑完, 剪辑好). Unlike general terms for ‘editing’ like 编辑 (which applies to text, documents, or publications), 剪辑 is almost exclusively reserved for time-based media involving visual and auditory sequencing.