轻 (qīng) · light (weight), gentle, slight

Meanings

1 light (weight)
2 gentle
3 slight

Characters

轻

qīng

light (weight); gentle

Contains 车 (vehicle) - a lightly loaded cart.

Examples

HSK 1

请轻一点，孩子在睡觉。

Qǐng qīng yìdiǎn, háizi zài shuìjiào.

Please be quiet, the child is sleeping.

HSK 3

这个箱子很轻。

Zhège xiāngzi hěn qīng.

This suitcase is very light.

HSK 3

她轻轻地关上了门。

Tā qīngqīng de guānshàng le mén.

She gently closed the door.

Tips

usage

The opposite is 重 (zhòng, heavy). 年轻 = young (literally 'light in years').

grammar

轻轻地 (qīngqīng de) is the adverb form meaning 'gently/softly'.

Components

radical

车 chē

cart (radical)

Left cart radical - the indexing radical, depicting a stylized chariot viewed from above. Originally 轻 meant 'a lightly loaded chariot.' From 'light cart' came the general adjective 'light in weight,' which extended to gentle, slight, frivolous. Same radical fronts 转 to turn, 输 to lose, 较 to compare.

semantic

又 yòu

right hand (semantic, top of phonetic)

Top-right 又 - a right hand viewed from above. In 轻 it sits over 工 to form the simplified phonetic-bundle 圣 (which replaced traditional 巠 'underground stream' during the 1956 reform). The hand is graphic residue here, not a semantic anchor - just the upper half of the contracted phonetic.

phonetic

工 gōng

work (bottom of phonetic)

Bottom-right 工 - together with 又 above forms 圣, the simplified phonetic that replaced traditional 巠 in 轻. The pair supplies the sound (the original 巠 reading jīng drifted to qīng, regular palatal alternation also seen in 经 jīng, 径 jìng, 茎 jīng). Pure phonetic role for the lower stack.