昆 (kūn): descendant, elder brother, a style of Chinese poetry
昆 (kūn) is a Chinese character meaning “descendant.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 日 (structural) and 比 (structural). It ranks #1742 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 昆 two brothers 比 under the son 日. Its radical form 日 (sun) appears in many related characters such as 日 (rì, sun, day), 早 (zǎo, early, morning), 时 (shí, time, hour).
Definitions
- descendant
- elder brother
- a style of Chinese poetry
Etymology & Origin
ideographicTwo brothers 比 under the son 日
Decomposition: ⿱日比 (layout: top-bottom)
Stroke Order
Practice writing 昆 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 昆
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 昆廷proper-noun | kūn tíng | Quentin (name) |
| 昆虫学noun | kūn chóng xué | entomology |
| 昆汀 | kūn tīng | Quentin (name) |
| 昆布noun | kūn bù | kelp |
| 昆士兰proper-noun | kūn shì lán | Queensland, northeast Australian state |
| 昆仑山 | kūn lún shān | Kunlun Mountain range |
| 昆明proper-noun | kūn míng | see 昆明市 |
| 昆仑adjective | kūn lún | Kunlun (Karakorum) mountain range in Xinjiang |
| 昆仲noun | kūn zhòng | (literary) brothers |
| 昆明市 | kūn míng shì | Kunming, prefecture-level city and capital of Yunnan Province 雲南省|云南省 |
| 昆山市 | kūn shān shì | Kunshan, a county-level city in Suzhou City 蘇州市|苏州市, Jiangsu |
| 昆士兰州 | kūn shì lán zhōu | Queensland (Australia) |
| 昆都仑区 | kūn dū lún qū | Hondlon, a district of Baotou City 包頭市|包头市, Inner Mongolia |
| 昆明湖proper-noun | kūn míng hú | Kunming Lake |
| 昆山proper-noun | kūn shān | see 崑山市|昆山市 |
昆 appears in 32 compound words: 78 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 13 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 昆 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (1)
Example Sentences
昆落西山，晚霞映红了半边天。
kūn luò xī shān , wǎn xiá yìng hóng le bàn biān tiān .
The sun sank behind the western mountains, The evening glow painted half the sky crimson.
迎向大AI时代 黄昆辉:以国家战略高度推动“AI赋能教育”
yíng xiàng dà A I shí dài huáng kūn huī : yǐ guó jiā zhàn lüè gāo dù tuī dòng A I fù néng jiào yù
Embracing the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Huang Kunhui Calls for Promoting "AI-Empowered Education" as a National Strategic Priority
爱妻昆凌开口了!周杰伦为她做出重大改变 发片记...
ài qī kūn líng kāi kǒu le ! zhōu jié lún wéi tā zuò chū chóng dà gǎi biàn fā piàn jì . . .
Jay Chou's wife, Kunling, speaks out! Jay Chou makes a major change for her—behind-the-scenes of the album release...
伊朗局势|荷里活名导昆顿塔伦天奴网传空袭丧生 已证实安然无恙
yī lǎng jú shì hé lǐ huó míng dǎo kūn dùn tǎ lún tiān nú wǎng chuán kōng xí sāng shēng yǐ zhèng shí ān rán wú 恙
Situation in Iran|Hollywood director Quinton Tarantino was killed in an airstrike online and has been confirmed to be safe and sound
...论坛》贾永婕借历史表态 不会获得正义(王昆义)
. . . lùn tán gǔ yǒng 婕 jiè lì shǐ biǎo tài bù huì huò dé zhèng yì ( wáng kūn yì )
... Forum" Jia Yongjie uses history to express that she will not get justice (Wang Kunyi)
巍巍昆仑之上,有一个个把青春和生命抵押给雪山的...
巍 巍 kūn 仑 zhī shàng , yǒu yī gè gè bǎ qīng chūn hé shēng mìng dǐ yā gěi xuě shān de . . .
On the majestic Kunlun, there are people who mortgage their youth and life to the snow-capped mountains...
凯教授已研究昆虫四十年。
Kǎi jiàoshòu yǐ yánjiū kūnchóng sìshí nián.
Professor Kai has been studying insects for forty years.
这列火车在昆山车站停车吗？
Zhè liè huǒchē zài Kūnshān chēzhàn tíngchē ma?
Does this train stop at Kunshan station?
这种昆虫在英语中叫什么？
Zhèzhǒng kūnchóng zài Yīngyǔ zhōng jiào shénme?
What do you call this insect in English?
他对收集昆虫很有兴趣。
Tā duì shōují kūnchóng hěn yǒuxìngqù.
He has an interest in collecting insects.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is 昆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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