湾

灣
wān
noun #5,123

Meanings

  1. 1 bay; gulf
  2. 2 a bend in a river

Examples

HSK 4
Táiwān shì yígè měilì de dìfāng.
Taiwan is a beautiful place.
HSK 5
Hǎiwān lǐ de shuǐ hěn píngjìng.
The water in the bay is very calm.

Tips

usage
台湾 = Taiwan, 海湾 = bay/gulf. The water radical 氵 reflects its aquatic meaning.

Components

radical
氵 shuǐ
water (radical form)
Left indexing water radical - the meaning anchor. A bay is a body of water curving into the land. The water-radical groups all bodies of water: 海 (sea), 湖 (lake), 河 (river), 港 (port). 湾 specifies the curved / bent shape of the inlet.
phonetic
弯 wān
bent; curved
Right 弯 supplies the exact sound wān AND adds a perfect semantic image: a bay IS a curve in the coastline. Reads literally as 'bent water' - a textbook clean phono-semantic compound. Traditional 灣 used 彎 as the same phonetic. Family: 弯 (bend), 蛮 (wild, southern barbarian).

Stroke Order

湾 wān