lín
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 rumbling sound of cart wheels

Examples

Chē línlín, mǎ xiāoxiāo, xíngrén gōngjiàn gè zài yāo.
Carts rumbled, horses neighed, soldiers marched with bows at their waists.
Chēduì zǒujìn, línlín shēng yuèláiyuè xiǎng.
The rumble of wheels grew louder as the convoy approached.

Tips

history
is an onomatopoeic word for the deep rumble of cart wheels, almost always doubled as 辚辚. It is unforgettable from the opening of 杜甫's 《兵车行》 (Ballad of the Army Carts), one of the most famous war poems in Chinese.

Components

radical
chē
cart; vehicle
The cart radical on the left, simplified from (a cart seen from above). It gives the meaning: is the sound made by cart wheels, so it belongs with vehicle words.
phonetic
lín
phosphorescence (phonetic)
Supplies the sound. This phonetic, read lín, gives the same reading to a whole family: (neighbor), (phosphorus) and (scale). It carries no meaning into .

Stroke Order

lín