wán
noun #29,019

Meanings

  1. 1 alkane (chemistry)
  2. 2 saturated hydrocarbon

Examples

HSK 7-9
Jiǎwán shì zuì jiǎndān de wán lèi huàhéwù.
Methane is the simplest alkane compound.
HSK 7-9
Shíyóu zhōng hányǒu dàliàng de wántīng.
Petroleum contains large amounts of alkanes.

Tips

memory
The fire radical () on the left hints at flammability - alkanes like methane and propane are all combustible fuels.

Components

radical
huǒ
fire
Left fire radical, the indexing element - pictograph of a flame with rising tongues. Marks as a combustible: alkanes are the saturated hydrocarbons that fuel modern flames. Same family as , , , plus the organic-chemistry coinages , , .
phonetic
wán
to finish; complete
Right supplies the sound directly: wán → wán. Strong semantic flavour too - means 'complete, saturated,' which is exactly what alkanes are at the molecular level (every carbon bond fully filled with hydrogen). The phonetic encodes the chemistry. Same phonetic in , , .

Stroke Order

wán