鸾

鸞
luán
noun #47,490

Meanings

  1. 1 (classical) luan, a mythical bird of the phoenix family
  2. 2 fabulous red-and-gold bird

Examples

HSK 7-9
Nǚchuáng zhī shān yǒu niǎo míng yuē luán.
On Nüchuang Mountain there is a bird called the luan.

Tips

history
Not a free word in modern Chinese; it lives in fixed literary compounds such as 鸾凤 (a perfect couple) and 鸾镜 (a bride's mirror). The top 亦 here is a reduced phonetic for the luán sound, also seen in 栾 and 峦.
culture
Paired with the phoenix 凤 as a symbol of harmonious marriage, which is why 鸾 still turns up in wedding poetry and auspicious sayings.

Components

radical
鸟 niǎo
bird
The bird radical 鸟 sits below and tells you the word names a creature with wings - here a legendary bird of the phoenix kind.
phonetic
亦 yì
phonetic stand-in (luán series)
On top, this is the simplified replacement for the old 龺-type phonetic. Across the simplified 亦-top family - 栾, 峦, 孪 - it consistently spells the luán sound, not its own yì reading.

Stroke Order

鸾 luán