琼 (qióng): fine jade

Meanings

1 fine jade
2 beautiful; exquisite
3 short name for Hainan Province

Characters

琼

qióng

fine jade; beautiful

Examples

琼楼玉宇是形容华丽建筑的成语。

Qióng lóu yù yǔ shì xíngróng huálì jiànzhù de chéngyǔ.

'Jade towers and jeweled palaces' is an idiom describing magnificent architecture.

琼是海南省的简称。

Qióng shì Hǎinánshěng de jiǎnchēng.

Qiong is the abbreviation for Hainan Province.

她的名字里有一个琼字。

Tā de míngzi lǐ yǒu yīgè qióng zì.

Her name has the character Qiong in it.

Tips

culture

琼 is a common character in Chinese given names, especially for women, evoking beauty and preciousness. It also appears in literary expressions like 琼浆玉液 (qióngjiāng yùyè, fine wine — literally 'jade nectar').

usage

琼 as an abbreviation for Hainan Province appears on license plates (琼A, 琼B, etc.) and in official documents.

Components

radical

王 wáng

jade (radical form)

Left 王 — on the left side this is the jade radical 玉 in compressed form (bottom dot dropped). Anchors 琼 in the precious-stones family alongside 玲, 珑, 珠, 璃. Reading it as 'king' here is wrong; it always means 'jade' on the left side.

phonetic

京 jīng

capital city (here phonetic)

Right 京 supplies the sound — jīng → qióng via old j/q palatalization. The traditional 瓊 used 夐 as phonetic; PRC reform replaced it with the simpler 京. 京 depicts a tall watchtower on a hill — a memory hook of 'jade as lofty as a capital,' fitting the literary 'exquisite, beautiful' sense.