岛 (dǎo): island

Measure Word

一座岛 zuò

Meanings

1 island

Characters

岛

dǎo

island

A bird 鸟 resting on a mountain 山.

Examples

海南岛是中国最大的热带岛屿。

Hǎinán dǎo shì Zhōngguó zuì dà de rèdài dǎoyǔ.

Hainan Island is China's largest tropical island.

他们去了一个美丽的小岛度假。

Tāmen qù le yīgè měilì de xiǎodǎo dùjià.

They went on vacation to a beautiful small island.

这座岛上住着几百个人。

Zhè zuò dǎo shàng zhù zhe jǐbǎi gèrén.

Several hundred people live on this island.

Tips

usage

岛 is often part of place names: 青岛 (Qīngdǎo), 海南岛, 台湾岛. 岛屿 (dǎo yǔ) is the more formal/written form meaning 'islands.' 半岛 (bàn dǎo) = peninsula.

culture

The traditional form 島 shows a bird 鳥 above a mountain 山 — a bird perched on a rocky island in the sea.

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Mountain radical at the bottom — Kangxi 46. Islands are mountain peaks rising above the water, so 山 is properly semantic and serves as the indexing radical. The same mountain shows up in 岸 shore, 峰 peak, 岭 ridge, 岩 rock.

semantic

鸟 niǎo

bird

The bird element wraps the top, but with its bottom horizontal stroke replaced by the 山 below — standalone 鸟 has 5 strokes; here only 4 because the closing stroke is 'shared' with the mountain. The image is a migrating bird perched on a rocky outcrop in the sea, hence 'island'.