韵 (yùn): rhyme

Meanings

1 rhyme
2 charm
3 appeal
4 lingering grace
5 the final of a syllable (phonology)

Characters

韵

yùn

rhyme / charm / lingering grace

Examples

这首诗押韵工整。

Zhè shǒu shī yāyùn gōngzhěng.

This poem has perfectly regular rhymes.

她的举止有一种古典的韵味。

Tā de jǔzhǐ yǒu yī zhǒng gǔdiǎn de yùnwèi.

There is a classical charm to her manner.

Tips

usage

韵 covers two key senses: (1) phonological — the rhyme or final of a Chinese syllable (声母/韵母 system); (2) aesthetic — lingering charm or artistic grace: 韵味 (yùnwèi = aesthetic charm), 韵律 (yùnlǜ = rhythm), 神韵 (shényùn = divine grace).

Components

radical

音 yīn

sound; tone

Left side 音 'sound' is the indexing radical, picturing a mouth (口) sending a vibration upward through 立 (stand). Anchors 韵 firmly in the sound-and-music family — rhyme, melody, lingering tonal grace. Same radical heads 章 (chapter, originally a musical division), 響 (echo), 韶 (court music).

phonetic

匀 yún

even; balanced (here phonetic)

Right side 匀 supplies the sound (yún → yùn after tone shift) and a small semantic bonus: 'evenly distributed.' A rhyme is exactly that — a sound returning at evenly measured points in a line of verse. Same phonetic appears in 均 (uniform), 钧 (heavy weight).