dōng
noun #37,785

Meanings

  1. 1 radon (chemical element, Rn, atomic number 86)

Examples

Dōng shì yì zhǒng fàngshèxìng qìtǐ.
Radon is a radioactive gas.
Dìxiàshì de dōng nóngdù xūyào jiǎncè.
The radon concentration in the basement needs to be measured.

Tips

memory
The character stacks (gas) over (winter) - a noble gas whose name borrows the sound of . Most Chinese element names for gases use the radical ( hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen).

Components

radical
gas; air
Gas/vapour radical wrapping the top-right - the indexing radical. Modern chemistry chars for noble gases all live in this family: (hydrogen), (oxygen), (helium), (nitrogen), (krypton). The radical labels as a gaseous element on sight.
phonetic
dōng
winter
Inside supplies the sound dōng directly - a clean phonetic borrowing. Radon was named in Chinese using this transparent sound-loan strategy: pick a gas-radical, glue on a phonetic that matches the syllable, done. carries no semantic weight here.

Stroke Order

dōng