吨 (dūn): ton (unit of weight)

Meanings

1 ton (unit of weight)

Characters

吨

dūn

ton

Examples

这辆卡车能装五吨货物。

Zhè liàng kǎchē néng zhuāng wǔ dūn huòwù.

This truck can carry five tons of cargo.

中国每年生产几亿吨钢铁。

Zhōngguó měinián shēngchǎn jǐyì dūn gāngtiě.

China produces hundreds of millions of tons of steel per year.

一吨等于一千公斤。

Yì dūn děngyú yìqiān gōngjīn.

One ton equals one thousand kilograms.

Tips

history

吨 is a phonetic loan — the character was created specifically to transliterate the English word 'ton.' The 口 radical indicates a phonetic borrowing.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth (loan-marker)

Left indexing mouth radical — used by convention to mark phonetic loans (foreign words pronounced as they sound). The 口 here is purely structural; 吨 was coined in the 19th century to transliterate English 'ton.' Same loanword pattern in 咖 (kā, coffee), 啡 (fēi, coffee), 喱 (lí, jelly).

phonetic

屯 tún

gather; encampment (here phonetic)

Right 屯 supplies the sound (tún → dūn, dental drift, tone change). 屯 originally pictured a sprout pushing up through soil and came to mean 'gathered / stationed.' Here it carries no semantic load on weight; pure phonetic for the 'ton' loan. Same key in 顿 (dùn), 钝 (dùn), 炖 (dùn).