缆 (lǎn): cable

Measure Word

一根缆绳 gēn

Meanings

1 cable
2 hawser
3 mooring rope
4 to moor (a boat)

Characters

缆

lǎn

cable; hawser; mooring rope

Examples

缆车沿着陡峭的山坡缓缓上升。

Lǎnchē yánzhe dǒuqiào de shānpō huǎnhuǎn shàngshēng.

The cable car slowly ascended along the steep mountainside.

工人们铺设了海底电缆。

Gōngrén men pūshè le hǎidǐ diànlǎn.

Workers laid undersea cables.

Tips

usage

缆 appears in 缆车 (lǎnchē, cable car), 缆绳 (lǎnshéng, mooring rope/hawser), 电缆 (diànlǎn, electric cable), and 光缆 (guānglǎn, fiber-optic cable).

Components

radical

纟 sī

silk; thread (radical form of 糸)

Silk-thread radical on the left — the side-form of 糸. Indexes 缆 in the cord family with 绳 rope, 线 line, 织 weave. A 缆 is the heaviest member of this family: a thick mooring cable, originally many threads twisted together for the strength to hold a ship.

phonetic

览 lǎn

to view; survey

Right side 览 supplies the sound lǎn directly, no drift. 览 alone means "to look over from a height," which has no obvious link to ropes — pure phonetic borrowing. Same phonetic in 揽 to embrace, 榄 olive, 篮 basket; all share the rope-handle imagery of things you can grasp.