wán
noun HSK 7-9 #7,371

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 ball; pellet; pill

Examples

Yīshēng ràng tā měitiān chī sān lì yàowán.
The doctor told him to take three pills a day.
Yúwán shì hěn shòu huānyíng de xiǎochī.
Fish balls are a very popular snack.

Tips

usage
appears in many food names: 鱼丸 (yúwán, fish ball), 肉丸 (ròuwán, meatball), (gòngwán, pork ball). It also shows up in traditional Chinese medicine: 药丸 (yàowán, pill) and famous formulas like .

Components

semantic
jiǔ
nine; here a graphic body
Two strokes forming a curved body — identical in shape to but originally a person bent into a ball. Visually splits cleanly into plus a dot for learners. Indexed under Kangxi #3 (diǎn, dot) by tradition via the small dot inside the curve; no separable etymological radical survives.
ideograph
zhǔ
dot; here a rolling-marker
Single dot inside the curve — an abstract marker for something small and round resting in the bend. Together with the curved body, the two strokes picture a tiny ball cupped in a curled hand: pellet, pill, marble. Same dot-as-content trick as (jade-dot on ) and (dot intensifying ).

Stroke Order

wán