diǎn
noun #21,981

Meanings

  1. 1 iodine (chemical element, symbol I)

Examples

Diǎn shì réntǐ bìxū de wēiliàng yuánsù zhīyī.
Iodine is one of the trace elements essential to the human body.
Jiā diǎn shíyán kěyǐ yùfáng jiǎzhuàngxiàn jíbìng.
Iodized salt can prevent thyroid disease.

Tips

memory
uses the stone radical on the left (since it was classified among mineral-like substances) and the phonetic component . The character sounds just like . Remember: iodine is element number 53, and it's a key 'point' in nutrition.

Components

radical
shí
stone; mineral
(the stone radical) is used here in the chemistry-element sense. Many non-metal elements were given -radical chars to mark them as mineral-derived. Iodine , silicon , sulfur , phosphorus , boron all share this naming pattern.
phonetic
diǎn
canon; standard
provides the sound directly. was coined for iodine in early 20th-century chemistry vocabulary, choosing a phonetic match for the iodo-/I- sound rather than carrying any of 's classical-canon meaning.

Stroke Order

diǎn