蜓

tíng

noun

Meanings

下雨前蜻蜓飞得特别低。

Xiàyǔ qián qīngtíng fēi de tèbié dī.

Dragonflies fly especially low before it rains.

孩子在花园里追蜻蜓。

Háizi zài huāyuán lǐ zhuī qīngtíng.

The child is chasing dragonflies in the garden.

usage

蜓 only appears in 蜻蜓 (dragonfly). It is a bound syllable with no independent meaning.

radical

虫 chóng

insect; worm

The insect radical 虫 on the left marks this as the name of a bug.

phonetic

廷 tíng

court (royal); courtyard

On the right 廷 supplies the sound exactly, with no shift. It serves purely as the phonetic element.

蜓 tíng