蜻 (qīng): (in 蜻蜓) dragonfly

Meanings

池塘上飞着几只蜻蜓。

Chítáng shàng fēi zhe jǐ zhī qīngtíng.

A few dragonflies are flying over the pond.

他只是蜻蜓点水地提了一下。

Tā zhǐshì qīngtíngdiǎnshuǐ de tí le yíxià.

He only touched on the topic superficially.

usage

蜻 only appears in 蜻蜓 (dragonfly) and the idiom 蜻蜓点水 (to skim the surface, like a dragonfly tapping the water). It has no standalone meaning.

radical

虫 chóng

insect; worm

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

phonetic

青 qīng

blue-green; young

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

蜻 qīng