氙

xiān
noun #43,437

Meanings

  1. 1 xenon (chemical element, symbol Xe)

Examples

HSK 5
Xiān dēng fāchū hěn liàng de lánbái guāng.
Xenon lamps give off a very bright bluish-white light.

Tips

memory
气 (gas) wraps 山 - a noble gas whose name takes the xiān sound. Many gas-element names wrap their phonetic in the 气 radical, like 氢 hydrogen and 氦 helium.

Components

radical
气 qì
gas; air
The 气 (gas) radical opens at the bottom and curves over the top, the standard wrapper for gaseous-element names. It tells the reader at a glance that 氙 is a gas, not a metal or non-metal solid.
phonetic
山 shān
mountain
Tucked inside is 山 (mountain), used purely for sound. It nudges the reading toward xiān and carries no 'mountain' meaning in this coined element name.

Stroke Order

氙 xiān