朧 (lóng) · dim (of moonlight), hazy, indistinct

Meanings

1 dim (of moonlight)
2 hazy
3 indistinct

Characters

朧

lóng

hazy moonlight, dim, indistinct

Examples

HSK 7-9

朧月映照着宁静的湖面。

Lóng yuè yìng zhàozhe níngjìng de húmiàn.

The hazy moon reflected on the calm lake.

HSK 7-9

月色朦朧，夜色如画。

Yuèsè méng lóng, yèsè rú huà.

The moonlight was hazy and the night scene was like a painting.

Tips

usage

朧 is rarely used alone; it almost always appears in the compound 朦朧 (ménglóng), meaning hazy or misty. It is a literary/poetic term.

Components

radical

月 yuè

moon

Left moon radical - the indexing radical, here in its true 'moon' sense (not the meat-flesh variant). Pictograph of a crescent moon. The compound 朦朧 'hazy moonlight' makes the radical choice transparent: this is the moon character used specifically for descriptions of dim lunar light.

phonetic

龍 lóng

dragon (here phonetic)

Right 龍 supplies the sound lóng (exact match). This is the traditional 16-stroke dragon character, used in this unsimplified variant 朧; the simplified form 胧 substitutes 龙. Same phonetic family: 朧 dim moon, 籠 cage, 聾 deaf. Purely a sound marker - no dragon meaning intended in the moonlight scene.