盾 meaning and stroke order
Shield; Dutch guilder
How to write 盾, stroke by stroke
9 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
Meaning of 盾
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- shield (CL:面[mian4])
- (currency) Vietnamese dong
- currency unit of several countries (Indonesian rupiah, Dutch gulden etc)
How 盾 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. An eye 目 peering from behind a shield 厂.
Radical: 目 (eye), shared by 100 characters on this site.
How to remember 盾
The etymology hint pictures an eye 目 peering out from behind a shield 厂. Imagine a soldier crouching behind his shield, with only his eye showing above the edge.
盾 (dùn) rarely stands alone in everyday speech. It mostly appears in words like 盾牌 (dùnpái, shield), 后盾 (hòudùn, backing), and above all 矛盾 (máodùn, contradiction). Example: 他说的话很矛盾。(Tā shuō de huà hěn máodùn.) What he said is very contradictory.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 盾 with 质 or 盲 because of the similar frames, or they write 目 as 日 inside. Remember the inside has a 十 on top of a full 目 with three inner lines.
Common words with 盾
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
盾 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Characters that contain 盾
Learning 盾 makes these easier to recognize and write.
Questions about 盾
How many strokes are in 盾?
盾 is written with 9 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 盾 mean?
盾 (dùn) means shield; Dutch guilder. A common word with it is 矛盾 (máodùn), meaning "contradiction; conflicting views".
How do you pronounce 盾?
盾 is pronounced dùn, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 盾?
The radical of 盾 is 目, which carries the idea of "eye". Dictionaries list 盾 under this radical.
Is 盾 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 盾 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why does 矛盾 mean contradiction?
矛 (máo) is a spear and 盾 (dùn) is a shield. An old story tells of a seller who claimed his spear could pierce anything and his shield could block anything, which cannot both be true. So spear plus shield came to mean contradiction.
Is 盾 used for money in Chinese?
Yes. It is used in the Chinese names of some currencies, such as the Vietnamese dong 越南盾 (Yuènán dùn), the Indonesian rupiah 印尼盾 (Yìnní dùn), and the old Dutch guilder.