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林 (lín) — forest, woods (used in compound words); a circle, group, or collection (of people or literary works); a surname

Definition

林 (lín) is a bound morpheme — it almost never stands alone, but forms the 'forest / woods' half of compounds like 森林 and 树林, and the 'community / circle' sense in words like 武林 ('martial arts world') or 词林 ('lexicon').

bound form
forestwoods (used in compound words)a circlegroupor collection (of people or literary works)a surname

Examples

  • 。
    Zhè piàn sēn lín fù gài le shàng wàn mǔ tǔ dì.
    This forest covers over ten thousand mu of land.
  • 。
    Tā zài wǔ lín zhōng hěn yǒu shēng wàng.
    He is very prestigious in the martial arts world.
  • 林。
    Zhè xiàng yán jiū dé dào le lín jiào shòu de dà lì zhī chí.
    This research received strong support from Professor Lin.

Origin

Compound ideograph
六书liùshū
会意huìyì

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

林 is made of two 木 (tree) placed side by side, showing many trees together, hence a forest.

Appears in
Trees & Forest3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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