kūn
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (classical) fine steel; a legendary sharp sword

Examples

Zhè piàn sēnlín lǐ yǒu hěnduō kūnchóng.
There are many kinds of insects in this forest.

Tips

history
Not used independently in modern Chinese; survives only in 锟铻, a legendary keen sword from classical texts, and in personal names. It is the metal radical plus phonetic .
register
Classical and literary only; encountered in old fiction and as a given-name character, not in speech.

Components

radical
jīn
metal; gold
The left-side metal radical, compressed. It marks the word as forged steel, the same family as the weapon characters and .
phonetic
kūn
elder; abundant; phonetic
Carries the sound kūn exactly. The same phonetic drives and ; here it contributes pronunciation only.

Stroke Order

kūn