duàn
verb #34,699

Meanings

  1. 1 to forge
  2. 2 to temper

Examples

HSK 4
Měitiān duànliàn néng ràng shēntǐ gèng jiànkāng.
Working out every day keeps the body healthy.
HSK 7-9
Gōngchǎng yòng gāng duànzào zhèxiē língjiàn.
The factory forges these parts from steel.

Tips

history
锻炼 originally meant forging metal, now commonly means 'to exercise'.

Components

radical
jīn
metal (radical form of 金)
Left metal radical - five-stroke side-form of . As the indexing radical it carries the literal meaning: forging is hammering and tempering metal. Same radical places with hammer, steel, to cast, sharp edge, iron - the entire smithy belongs to this family.
phonetic
duàn
section; to break
Right supplies the full sound - duàn read identically in the parent. Strong semantic boost too: itself depicts a hand striking stone or metal with a tool, the very action of forging. The 'phonetic' here doubles as near-semantic - unusually well-matched.

Stroke Order

duàn