沦 (lún): to sink (into ruin, oblivion), to be reduced to

沦 (lún) is a Chinese character meaning “to sink (into ruin, oblivion).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 仑 (phonetic). It ranks #2701 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 沦 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 河 (hé, river), 海 (hǎi, sea), 洋 (yáng, ocean).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to sink (into ruin, oblivion)
  2. to be reduced to

Etymology & Origin

沦

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵仑 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing 沦 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
沦落verblún luòto degenerate
沉沦verbchén lúnto sink into (vice, depravity etc)
沦为verblún wéito sink down to
沦陷verblún xiànto fall into enemy hands
沦丧verblún sàngto be lost
沦亡verblún wáng(of a country) to perish
道德沦丧dào dé lún sàngmoral bankruptcy
沦没lún mòto sink
沦陷区nounlún xiàn qūenemy-held territory
沦灭lún mièto perish
沦浃lún jiāto be deeply affected
沦肌浃髓lún jī jiā suǐlit. penetrate to the marrow (idiom)
12
Total compounds
83
As first character
8
As last character
8
As middle character

沦 appears in 12 compound words: 83 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 8 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 沦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

政zhèng
0.33914 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

沦肌浃髓lún jī jiā suǐ

lit. penetrate to the marrow (idiom); deeply affected; moved to the core

phrase

Example Sentences

少数派Sep 2026

时运无常 谁也不知道它会在哪里沉沦。

shí yùn wú cháng shéi yě bù zhī dào tā huì zài nǎ lǐ chén lún .

Fortune is fickle; no one knows where it will lead.

IT之家Sep 2026

粉丝们担心,这部新作又会沦为一部敷衍了事的改编作品,重蹈此前无数改编影片的覆辙。

fěn sī men dān xīn , zhè bù xīn zuò yòu huì lún wéi yī bù fū yǎn le shì de gǎi biān zuò pǐn , chóng dǎo cǐ qián wú shǔ gǎi biān yǐng piàn de fù zhé .

Fans are worried that this new film will end up being yet another half-hearted adaptation, following in the footsteps of countless previous adaptations.

爱范儿Sep 2026

记录已经沦为现代人下意识的肌肉记忆,但真正掷地有声的作品却依旧稀缺。

jì lù yǐ jīng lún wéi xiàn dài rén xià yì shí de jī ròu jì yì , dàn zhēn zhèng zhì dì yǒu shēng de zuò pǐn què yī jiù xī quē .

Writing has become second nature to modern people, but truly impactful works remain scarce.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

唯有实力与成绩才是立足之本,脱离赛场的荣誉,终究转瞬即逝、沦为昙花一现。

wéi yǒu shí lì yǔ chéng jì cái shì lì zú zhī běn , tuō lí sài chǎng de róng yù , zhōng jiū zhuǎn shùn jí shì , lún wéi 昙 huā yī xiàn .

Only true ability and achievements are the foundation of one’s standing; honors outside the arena are ultimately fleeting and amount to nothing more than a flash in the pan.

少数派Aug 2026

本作是一款开放世界电影式第三人称射击游戏,背景设定在近未来沦陷的首尔。

běn zuò shì yī kuǎn kāi fàng shì jiè diàn yǐng shì dì sān rén chēng shè jī yóu xì , bèi jǐng shè dìng zài jìn wèi lái lún xiàn de shǒu ěr .

This game is an open-world, cinematic third-person shooter set in a near-future, overrun Seoul.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lún

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沦 (lún) mean in Chinese?
沦 (lún) primarily means "to sink (into ruin, oblivion)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2701 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 沦 have?
沦 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 沦?
The radical associated with 沦 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沦?
沦 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 仑 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵仑 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沦?
Common words with 沦 include: 沦落 (lún luò, "to degenerate"); 沉沦 (chén lún, "to sink into (vice, depravity etc)"); 沦为 (lún wéi, "to sink down to"); 沦陷 (lún xiàn, "to fall into enemy hands"); 沦丧 (lún sàng, "to be lost"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 沦 (lún)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lún: 轮 (wheel). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 沦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 沦 and the traditional form is 淪.

Practice writing 沦 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.