huàn
noun #5,995

Meanings

  1. 1 fantasy; illusion
  2. 2 magical; unreal

Examples

HSK 3
Zhè bù diànyǐng chōngmǎn le huànxiǎng.
This movie is full of fantasy.
HSK 6
Móshùshī biǎoyǎn le hěnduō huànshù.
The magician performed many illusions.

Tips

usage
is in 幻想 (fantasy), 幻觉 (hallucination), 梦幻 (dreamlike), 科幻 (sci-fi). 奇幻 means 'fantasy' as a genre.

Components

radical
yāo
tiny; thread
The radical on the left pictures a coiled silk thread - something faint and small. It indexes the character and supplies the 'tenuous, illusory' semantic core: what is too thin to be seen clearly, what slips through one's fingers.
ideograph
bāo
wrap; right-side hook
Right side functions as a bare wrapping hook with no inner content - an abstract closing stroke balancing the on the left. Historically was the mirror-image of (to give), suggesting reverse-of-giving equals deceiving; the modern silhouette has reduced that flipped form to this residual curl.

Stroke Order

huàn