洞 (tóng): used in 洪洞, a county in Shanxi

Meanings

1 used in 洪洞, a county in Shanxi

Characters

洞

tóng

used in 洪洞, a county in Shanxi

Examples

洪洞县在山西临汾。

Hóngtóng xiàn zài Shānxī Línfén.

Hongtong County is in Linfen, Shanxi.

明朝时，很多人从洪洞迁移到全国各地。

Míngcháo shí, hěnduō rén cóng Hóngtóng qiānyí dào quánguó gèdì.

During the Ming dynasty, many people migrated from Hongtong to all parts of the country.

Tips

usage

The tóng reading is locked to one place name: 洪洞 county in Shanxi. In every other compound and standalone use, 洞 is dòng. If you're not naming this specific county, default to dòng.

culture

洪洞 is famous for the Great Pagoda Tree (大槐树) — the staging ground for the largest government-organised migration in Chinese history (Ming dynasty, 1370s–1410s). Millions across north China trace their ancestry to this departure point, and many family genealogies still record 洪洞 as the origin village.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical)

Three-drop water radical on the left — the side-stacking form of 水. Original sense of 洞 was a water-cut hole: a cave hollowed out by a stream, a sinkhole, an underground passage. From those literal cave-mouths the meaning broadened to any opening or hole, including figurative ones (洞察, to see clearly through).

phonetic

同 tóng

same; together

Right 同 supplies the sound — tóng shifted only in tone to dòng (2nd → 4th). 同 is itself a hollow shape (a frame around 一 + 口, suggesting a pipe or tube), giving a faint semantic echo of an empty channel. Family with same phonetic: 桐 (paulownia), 铜 (copper), 筒 (tube).