墩 (dūn): block

Measure Word

一个桥墩 gè

Meanings

1 block
2 stump
3 gate pillar
4 bridge pier
5 clump (of plants)
6 classifier for clusters of plants or rounds in a card game

Characters

墩

dūn

block; stump; pier; clump

Examples

HSK 3

她坐在一个木墩子上休息。

Tā zuò zài yí gè mù dūnzi shàng xiūxi.

She sat on a wooden stump to rest.

HSK 5

工人们正在修建桥墩。

Gōngrénmen zhèngzài xiūjiàn qiáodūn.

The workers are building bridge piers.

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

Left earth radical, a pictograph of a clod or mound of soil rising from the ground. The indexing element. Puts 墩 in the earthwork family with 块 (block), 堆 (pile), 堡 (fort), 坝 (dam), 坟 (mound, tomb). The radical states the substance: a 墩 is a solid block of earth, stone, or masonry, a pier, plinth, or pillar-base anchored in the ground.

phonetic

敦 dūn

kindhearted; weighty

Right 敦 supplies the sound, dūn matching the parent reading with no drift. Helpfully, 敦 carries the flavour of 'weighty, solid, sincere'. The same flavour transfers to 墩: a thick, weighty block of stone or earth, planted firmly. The phonetic doubles as semantic reinforcement for the squat, heavy meaning.