缆 (lǎn): cable

Measure Word

一根缆绳 gēn

Meanings

1 cable
2 hawser
3 mooring rope
4 to moor (a boat)

Characters

缆

lǎn

cable; hawser; mooring rope

Examples

HSK 7-9

缆车沿着陡峭的山坡缓缓上升。

Lǎnchē yánzhe dǒuqiào de shānpō huǎnhuǎn shàngshēng.

The cable car slowly ascended along the steep mountainside.

HSK 7-9

工人们铺设了海底电缆。

Gōngrén men pūshè le hǎidǐ diànlǎn.

Workers laid undersea cables.

Tips

usage

缆 appears in 缆车 (cable car), 缆绳 (mooring rope/hawser), 电缆 (electric cable), and 光缆 (fiber-optic cable).

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread (radical form of 糸)

Silk-thread radical on the left - the side-form of 糸. Indexes 缆 in the cord family with 绳 rope, 线 line, 织 weave. A 缆 is the heaviest member of this family: a thick mooring cable, originally many threads twisted together for the strength to hold a ship.

phonetic

览 lǎn

to view; survey

Right side 览 supplies the sound lǎn directly, no drift. 览 alone means "to look over from a height," which has no obvious link to ropes - pure phonetic borrowing. Same phonetic in 揽 to embrace, 榄 olive, 篮 basket; all share the rope-handle imagery of things you can grasp.