(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.
  • Zhè xiàng yán jiū dé dào le lín jiào shòu de dà lì zhī chí.
    This research received strong support from Professor Lin.

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