昆

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descendant; elder brother; a style of Chinese poetry

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Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Ideographic compound (会意字)

Two brothers 比 under the son 日

Components 日比

descendants · Heisig RSH #457

sun + 比 compare

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
昆士兰州	Kūn shì lán zhōu	Queensland (Australia)
昆山市	Kūn shān Shì	Kunshan, a county-level city in Suzhou City 蘇州市\|苏州市[Su1 zhou1 Shi4], Jiangsu
昆明市	Kūn míng Shì	Kunming, prefecture-level city and capital of Yunnan Province 雲南省\|云南省[Yun2 nan2 Sheng3]
昆士兰	Kūn shì lán	Queensland, northeast Australian state
昆虫学	kūn chóng xué	entomology
石玉昆	Shí Yù kūn	Shi Yukun (c. 1810-1871), Qing pinghua 評話\|评话[ping2 hua4] master storyteller
昆明湖	Kūn míng Hú	Kunming Lake
昆山	Kūn shān	see 崑山市\|昆山市[Kun1 shan1 Shi4]
昆汀·塔伦提诺	Kūn tīng · Tǎ lún tí nuò	Quentin Tarantino (1963-), American film director
昆明	Kūn míng	see 昆明市[Kun1 ming2 Shi4]
昆布	kūn bù	kelp
昆卡	Kūn kǎ	Cuenca (place name and surname)
昆曲	Kūn qǔ	Kunqu opera, influential musical theater originating in Kunshan, Jiangsu province in Yuan …
昆玉	kūn yù	honorific term for another person's brother
昆汀·塔伦蒂诺	Kūn tīng · Tǎ lún dì nuò	Quentin Tarantino (1963-), American film director
昆虫	kūn chóng	insect; CL:隻\|只[zhi1],群[qun2],堆[dui1]
喀拉昆仑山	Kā lā kūn lún shān	Karakorum mountains
昆都仑区	Kūn dū lún Qū	Hondlon, a district of Baotou City 包頭市\|包头市[Bao1 tou2 Shi4], Inner Mongolia
昆仑山脉	Kūn lún shān mài	Kunlun Mountain range
喀喇昆仑公路	Kā lǎ kūn lún Gōng lù	Karakorum Highway, linking Pakistan and Xinjiang

These characters use 昆 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
昆 sound part	kūn	elder brother; descendants
混	hùn	muddy, confused; to mix, to blend; to mingle
棍	gùn	stick, cudgel; scoundrel
醌	kūn	quinone
馄	hún	dumpling soup; wonton
鲲	kūn	spawn; roe; fry
鹍	kūn	a bird resembling a crane
锟	kūn	a legendary sword
绲	gǔn	belt, cord, sash; hemming; to sew
辊	gǔn	to revolve, to turn; a stone roller
琨	kūn	beautiful jade, precious stones