hóng

rainbow

creature (虫) + work sound (工) = rainbow

Early Chinese saw the rainbow as a living sky-dragon or spirit creature arching across the heavens, so the creature radical carries the meaning. 工 simply gives the sound hóng and contributes nothing to the image.

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WorkPhonetic
InsectSemantic

雨后天空出现了一道美丽的

yǔ hòu tiān kōng chū xiàn le yī dào měi lì de hóng。

After the rain, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky.

那道跨越了整个山谷,颜色很鲜艳。

nà dào hóng kuà yuè le zhěng gè shān gǔ,yán sè hěn xiān yàn。

That rainbow stretched across the entire valley, its colors very vivid.

Words with 虹

长虹

cháng hóng

Changhong (brand)

霓虹

ní hóng

(loanword) neon lights (abbr. for 霓虹燈|霓虹灯[ni2 hong2 deng1])

霓虹国

ní hóng guó

(slang) Japan (loanword from the Japanese word for Japan, 日本 "Nihon")

霓虹灯

ní hóng dēng

(loanword) neon lights

黄宾虹

huáng bīn hóng

Huang Binhong (1865-1955), art historian and literati painter

彩虹

cǎi hóng

rainbow

彩虹吸蜜鹦鹉

cǎi hóng xī mì yīng wǔ

(bird species of China) rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus)

彩虹屁

cǎi hóng pì

(neologism c. 2017) (slang) over-the-top praise

彩虹族群

cǎi hóng zú qún

the LGBT+ community

彩虹旗

cǎi hóng qí

rainbow flag, aka LGBT pride flag

彩虹蜂虎

cǎi hóng fēng hǔ

(bird species of China) rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus)

彩虹行动

cǎi hóng xíng dòng

the two mass scuttling operations carried out by the German navy: the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 and Operation Regenbogen, the scuttling of U-boats in 1945

More characters with 虫