瞬

shùn
verb #28,725

Meanings

  1. 1 to wink
  2. 2 an instant; a flash

Examples

HSK 7-9
Zhuǎnshùnjíshì de měijǐng ràng rén gǎntàn.
The fleeting beauty that vanishes in an instant fills one with wonder.
HSK 7-9
Yíshùn zhījiān, yānhuā zhànfàng yòu xīmiè.
In an instant, the fireworks bloomed and faded.

Tips

memory
瞬 contains the eye radical (目), hinting at its connection to blinking. A blink (一瞬) is the shortest unit of time in classical Chinese - used in words like 瞬间 (a split second) and 瞬息万变 (changing in the blink of an eye).

Components

radical
目 mù
eye
Left eye radical - the indexing element, a pictograph of an eyeball with its inner detail. Puts 瞬 in the eye-action family with 看 (look), 睡 (sleep), 眨 (wink), 瞧 (peek), 瞪 (stare). The radical states the obvious: a wink or blink is something the eye does, and from that micro-action grew the meaning 'an instant, the blink of an eye.'
phonetic
舜 shùn
Emperor Shun; rosemallow
Right 舜 supplies the sound shùn with no drift. 舜 is mostly known as the name of the legendary sage-emperor; it also names a day-flowering hibiscus whose bloom opens and closes within a single day - a fitting semantic echo for 'in the blink of an eye.' The phonetic carries both the reading and the fleeting-flower image.

Stroke Order

瞬 shùn