huán
noun #33,343

Meanings

  1. 1 vast domain
  2. 2 wide expanse
  3. 3 the world
  4. 4 the whole realm

Examples

Tā de míngshēng xiǎng biàn huányǔ.
His fame resounds across the entire world.
Zhè chǎng bǐsài zhènjīng huánqiú.
This match shocked the whole globe.

Tips

usage
is a literary/classical character almost never used alone in modern Chinese. Look for it in compounds: 寰宇 ("the universe"), 寰球 ("the globe"), 人寰 ("the world of the living", as in 惨绝人寰, "unprecedented in human history"), and 尘寰 ("the dusty world," Buddhist for "this mortal life"). Originally meant the royal domain within 1000 li of the imperial capital.

Components

radical
mián
roof
(the roof radical) here marks as a domain or sphere - the roof of the realm. Reading as 'everything-under-this-roof' fits its sense of vast expanse, the whole world beneath one symbolic cover.
phonetic
qióng
to gaze around; alarmed look
supplies the sound, drifted from qióng to huán. The same phonetic appears in (ring) and (return) - and the encircling-eye imagery of chimes with as the whole encircled realm under the heavens.

Stroke Order

huán