铝

鋁
lǚ
noun #12,468

Meanings

  1. 1 aluminum

Examples

HSK 5
Zhège guō shì lǚ zuò de.
This pot is made of aluminum.
HSK 6
Lǚ shì yī zhǒng hěn qīng de jīnshǔ.
Aluminum is a very light metal.

Components

radical
钅 jīn
metal (radical form of 金)
Metal radical on the left - side form of 金, five strokes preserving the canopy and dots of the gold-and-ore picture. Marks 铝 as a metallic element, like every element-name coined in late-19th-century chemistry: 铁 iron, 铜 copper, 银 silver, 钢 steel. Radical does the meaning work; right side picks the sound.
phonetic
吕 lǚ
musical pitch; surname
Right side 吕 supplies the sound directly - same lǚ with no shift. Originally 吕 pictured a string of vertebrae or paired musical pitches; here it serves purely as phonetic. The character 铝 itself is a modern coinage - when Mendeleev's table reached Chinese chemistry, translators slotted lǚ alongside 钅 to spell aluminium, matching the European 'al-' opening.

Stroke Order

铝 lǚ