运 (yùn): to move; to transport; to ship

Meanings

1 to move; to transport; to ship
2 luck; fortune; fate
3 to use; to apply

Characters

运

yun

to transport; luck; fortune

Examples

祝你好运！

Zhù nǐhǎo yùn!

Good luck!

运动对身体有好处。

Yùndòng duì shēntǐ yǒu hǎochu.

Exercise is good for your health.

这些货物要运到上海。

Zhèxiē huòwù yào yùn dào Shànghǎi.

These goods need to be shipped to Shanghai.

Tips

usage

运 is used in: 运动 (exercise/sports/movement), 运气 (luck), 运输 (transport), 命运 (fate/destiny), 幸运 (lucky). 运气 and 幸运 are everyday words.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

walk; movement (radical)

Wrapping walk radical (Kangxi #162 辵 in its 3-stroke compressed form) — depicts a foot stepping forward at the bottom of a road. Anchors all transport and motion meanings of 运 (transport, luck-as-fortune-flowing, movement). Same radical groups 进, 退, 道, 远, 边.

phonetic

云 yún

cloud

Inner phonetic 云 (yún) — supplies the sound, shifting to yùn. Originally 运 was 軍 (army) inside 辶 (movement), meaning to move troops; the simplified form replaced 軍 with 云 (its phonetic match) to reduce strokes. The cloud imagery is incidental — a nice bonus of moving things along like drifting clouds.