wān
noun #5,123

Meanings

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

Examples

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

Tips

usage
台湾 (Táiwān) = Taiwan, 海湾 (hǎiwān) = bay/gulf. The water radical reflects its aquatic meaning.

Components

radical
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: (sea), (lake), (river), (port). specifies the curved / bent shape of the inlet.
phonetic
wān
bent; curved
Right 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 used as the same phonetic. Family: (bend), (wild, southern barbarian).

Stroke Order

wān