昆 meaning and stroke order
Elder brother; descendants
How to write 昆, stroke by stroke
8 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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- 8
Meaning of 昆
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- descendant
- elder brother
- a style of Chinese poetry
- variant of 崑|昆[kun1]
- used in place names, notably Kunlun Mountains 崑崙|昆仑[Kun1 lun2]
- (also used for transliteration)
How 昆 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. Two brothers 比 under the son 日.
Radical: 日 (sun), shared by 116 characters on this site.
How to remember 昆
Picture the sun 日 (rì) on top and two people standing side by side 比 (bǐ) below. The etymology hint reads it as two brothers under the sun, which links to the old meaning of elder brother and descendants.
Today 昆 (kūn) mostly appears in fixed words and names rather than on its own. The most common word is 昆虫 (kūnchóng, insect), and it also shows up in place names like 昆明 (Kūnmíng) and 昆仑 (Kūnlún). Example: 我很怕昆虫。(Wǒ hěn pà kūnchóng.) I am very afraid of insects.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes confuse 昆 with 混 (hùn, to mix), which contains 昆 plus the water radical 氵 and has a fourth tone. Keep 昆 in the first tone, kūn, and remember it has no water on the left.
Common words with 昆
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 昆虫 | kūnchóng | insect | HSK 7-9 |
昆 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 昆
Learning 昆 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 昆
How many strokes are in 昆?
昆 is written with 8 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 昆 mean?
昆 (kūn) means elder brother; descendants. A common word with it is 昆虫 (kūnchóng), meaning "insect".
How do you pronounce 昆?
昆 is pronounced kūn, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 昆?
The radical of 昆 is 日, which carries the idea of "sun". Dictionaries list 昆 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 昆?
The traditional form of 昆 is 崐 and 崑. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 昆 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
Is 昆 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 昆 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Does 昆 still mean elder brother in modern Chinese?
Not in everyday speech. For elder brother people say 哥哥 (gēge). The brother sense of 昆 survives mainly in classical texts and literary phrases.
Why is 昆 used in 昆虫 if it means brother?
The data does not explain the link, so it is best to learn 昆虫 (kūnchóng) as a fixed word. You can still remember that 虫 (chóng) means bug, which tells you what the word is about.