琳 (lín): beautiful jade

Meanings

1 beautiful jade
2 gem
3 Lin (name component)

Characters

琳

lín

beautiful jade; gem

Examples

琳琅满目的商品摆满了货架。

Línlángmǎnmù de shāngpǐn bǎi mǎn le huòjià.

A dazzling array of products filled the shelves.

她的名字叫秀琳。

Tā de míngzi jiào Xiù lín.

Her name is Xiulin.

Tips

usage

琳 is most commonly seen in 琳琅满目 (línláng mǎnmù, a feast for the eyes) and as a component in female given names. The jade radical 王 (玉) signals its meaning of precious stone.

Components

radical

王 wáng

jade; king (variant of 玉)

Jade radical on the left — formally the left-side form of 玉, distinguished from the king radical only by the missing dot. 琳 names a fine jade gemstone; the radical is exact. Same radical heads 玲 tinkling jade, 珍 precious, 珠 pearl, 瑰 rose-jade — the precious-stone family.

phonetic

林 lín

forest (here phonetic)

Right side 林 supplies an exact phonetic match: lín → lín, no drift. 林 itself is two trees side by side — the doubled-tree compound ideograph for forest. Same phonetic also gives 淋 lín (drench), 霖 lín (long rain), 临 lín (face, approach) — a tight lín family.