囹 (líng): prison (used only in 囹圄)

Meanings

1 prison (used only in 囹圄)

Characters

囹

líng

prison (bound)

Examples

那位贪官最终身陷囹圄。

Nàwèi tānguān zuìzhōng shēnxiàn língyǔ.

The corrupt official ended up behind bars.

古书中常用囹圄指监狱。

Gǔshū zhōng cháng yòng língyǔ zhǐ jiānyù.

Ancient texts often used 囹圄 (língyǔ) to mean prison.

Tips

usage

Outside the fixed compound 囹圄 ('prison'), this character has no independent use. CEDICT explicitly marks it as 'used in 囹圄'. The compound itself is literary and shows up in news clichés like 身陷囹圄 ('thrown into jail') when describing fallen officials.

memory

The outer 囗 is a walled enclosure (think prison walls); the inside is 令 'order/command', which here just supplies the sound líng. So: walls + a command-sounding component = the literary word for the place you go when an official command locks you up.

Components

radical

囗 wéi

enclosure; walls

Kangxi #31, the 'enclosure' radical — four walls drawn around whatever is locked inside. Note the strokes are non-contiguous: the top and left walls go down first, then the inside 令 is written, and only at the very end does the bottom wall close the box. Same wrap-then-close order as 国 and 回.

phonetic

令 lìng

order; command

Pure phonetic — 令 contributes the sound (lìng → líng, just a tone shift) with no semantic role. The same phonetic series gives 玲, 铃, 零 and 领 — all reliably read líng/lǐng.