líng
noun HSK 7-9 #1,745

Meanings

  1. 1 spirit; soul; supernatural
  2. 2 nimble; clever; effective

Examples

Zhège fāngfǎ hěn líng.
This method works well.
Tā de shǒu hěn língqiǎo.
Her hands are very nimble.
Línghún shì shénme?
What is a soul?

Tips

usage
灵活 (línghuó) = flexible, 灵魂 (línghún) = soul, 灵感 (línggǎn) = inspiration, 机灵 (jīling) = clever.

Components

radical
huǒ
fire
Bottom is the fire radical and the indexing radical of . Its presence ties the char to ritual fire — shamans (the hidden in traditional ) communicated with spirits through smoke and flame. Modern 's senses of 'spirit, soul, effective, clever' all descend from that ritual context.
semantic
pig's snout; hand-with-broom
Top is a hand-shape component used in many chars (, , ). In simplified it stands in for the elaborate top of traditional — three above (shaman) — compressed by the 1956 reform into this stylised hand. So here is graphic residue.

Stroke Order

líng