yùn
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to contain; to hold within; to harbour
  2. 2 to conceal; to store away

Examples

Shí yùn yù ér shān huī.
When stone holds jade within, the mountain itself takes on a glow.
韫椟而藏等待时机
Tā yùndúércáng, děngdài shíjī.
He kept his talent hidden, waiting for the right moment.

Tips

register
yùn is literary — you will meet it only in classical citations and high-register modern writing. Two famous loci: Lu Ji's 《文赋》 'Rhapsody on Literature' — 石韫玉而山辉 'stone holding jade gives the mountain its glow' (a metaphor for hidden talent). And Confucius in the Analects — 韫椟而藏 'to store [a jade] in a cabinet and hide it' (waiting for the right buyer / patron). Both phrases live on as set classical references in modern essays about talent and patience.
memory
Read the components: (originally an enclosure, here suggesting 'wrapped, enclosed') + (warm / soft, supplying the sound yùn through wēn-yùn variation) = 'kept warm and wrapped inside' = to contain, to hold within.

Components

radical
wéi
tanned leather; enclosure (radical)
Left — the indexing radical (Kangxi #178). Originally feet walking around an enclosure, later 'tanned leather'. Here it carries the 'wrapped / enclosed' image: a thing wrapped up, kept inside. Same radical groups (sheathe), (contain) — both about hiding or wrapping.
phonetic
wēn
warm; gentle; supplying the sound
Right phonetic — supplies the sound (wēn → yùn, a regular shift in the same phonetic series). The same phonetic anchors (warm), (epidemic), (store up — semantic twin of ).

Stroke Order

yùn