xiōng
noun #2,361

Meanings

  1. 1 chest; thorax
  2. 2 bosom; mind

Examples

Tā xiōngkǒu téng.
His chest hurts.
Tā xīnxiōng hěn kuānguǎng.
She is very broad-minded.

Tips

usage
胸口 (chest area), 心胸 (breadth of mind), 胸怀 (ambition/mind).

Components

radical
ròu
flesh; body (radical form)
Left-side here is the (flesh) radical — body parts and bodily states. The chest is a body part, so the radical fits exactly. Same flesh- in (face), (liver), (stomach), (waist), (leg). Visually identical to moon- but distinct in origin.
phonetic
xiōng
Hun; chest (here phonetic and original semantic)
Right component supplies an exact phonetic match. also originally meant 'chest' before being borrowed for the Xiongnu people; was created later by adding to disambiguate. So carries the original meaning, with marking it explicitly as bodily.

Stroke Order

xiōng