líng
noun HSK 7-9 #1,745

Meanings

  1. 1 spirit; soul; supernatural
  2. 2 nimble; clever; effective

Examples

HSK 2
Zhège fāngfǎ hěn líng.
This method works well.
HSK 3
Tā de shǒu hěn língqiǎo.
Her hands are very nimble.
HSK 7-9
Línghún shì shénme?
What is a soul?

Tips

usage
灵活 = flexible, 灵魂 = soul, 灵感 = inspiration, 机灵 = clever.

Components

radical
huǒ
fire
Bottom is the fire radical and the indexing radical of . Its presence ties the char to ritual fire - shamans (the hidden in traditional ) communicated with spirits through smoke and flame. Modern 's senses of 'spirit, soul, effective, clever' all descend from that ritual context.
semantic
pig's snout; hand-with-broom
Top is a hand-shape component used in many chars (, , ). In simplified it stands in for the elaborate top of traditional - three above (shaman) - compressed by the 1956 reform into this stylised hand. So here is graphic residue.

Stroke Order

líng