烃 (tīng): hydrocarbon (organic compound o…

Meanings

1 hydrocarbon (organic compound of carbon and hydrogen only)

Characters

烃

tīng

hydrocarbon

Examples

HSK 6

烃是石油和天然气的主要成分。

Tīng shì shíyóu hé tiānránqì de zhǔyào chéngfèn.

Hydrocarbons are the main components of petroleum and natural gas.

HSK 7-9

甲烷是最简单的烃。

Jiǎwán shì zuì jiǎndān de tīng.

Methane is the simplest hydrocarbon.

Tips

memory

烃 is a chemistry-coined character: 火 (fire) radical for combustibles + 巠 phonetic. The word reflects its composition - 碳 (carbon) + 氢 (hydrogen), with the pronunciation borrowing from the second character's onset. Compounds: 烷 (alkane), 烯 (alkene), 炔 (alkyne) all use the 火 radical for the same reason.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire (radical)

Left fire radical - the indexing radical, marking 烃 firmly as a combustion-related modern coinage. Same radical anchors 烷 alkane, 烯 alkene, 炔 alkyne - the whole set of organic-chemistry hydrocarbons. Whenever a Chinese chemistry term names a flammable compound, expect 火 on the left.

phonetic

巠 jīng

warp threads (here phonetic)

Right side is the contracted 5-stroke simplified form of phonetic 巠 (standalone 7 strokes, traditional 經 keeps the fuller shape). Supplies the sound, drifting jīng to tīng in this 1930s chemistry coinage for hydrocarbon. Same phonetic powers 经, 颈, 径, 茎 with related j-/q- readings.