蝉
Tap the pinyin to hear it
cicada
- Strokes
- 14
- Radical
- 虫 +8
- Structure
- Left–right 左右
- Traditional
- 蟬
- Common rank
- #2,673
- Unicode
- U+8749
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 蝉
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 金蝉脱壳 | lit. the cicada sheds its carapace (idiom); fig. to vanish leaving an empty shell; a craft… | |
| 寒蝉效应 | the chilling effect of a climate of fear in which people are afraid to speak their mind | |
| 螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后 | (lit.) the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the siskin behind (idiom, from Daoist clas… | |
| 金蝉 | Golden Cicada | |
| 蝉科 | Cicadidae, homopterous insect family including cicada | |
| 蝉联 | to continue in a post; (to hold a post) several times in succession; (to win a title) in s… | |
| 蝉衣 | cicada slough (used in TCM) | |
| 寒蝉 | a cicada in cold weather (used as a metaphor for sb who keeps their thoughts to themself);… | |
| 蝉翼 | cicada's wing | |
| 蝉鸣 | song of cicadas; chirping of insects | |
| 蝉虾 | slipper lobster (family Scyllaridae) | |
| 蝉猴 | (coll.) newly-emerged cicada nymph | |
| 噤若寒蝉 | to keep quiet out of fear (idiom) | |
| 螳螂捕蝉 | see 螳螂捕蟬，黃雀在後|螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后[tang2 lang2 bu3 chan2 , huang2 que4 zai4 hou4] | |
| 貂蝉 | Diaochan (-192), one of the four legendary beauties 四大美女[si4 da4 mei3 nu:3], in fiction a … | |
| 蝉蜕 | cicada slough; fig. to free oneself; to extricate oneself from |
Sound family
Characters sharing the sound component 单 — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 单 sound part | single, individual, only; lone | |
| 弹 | bullet, pellet, shell; elastic, springy | |
| 殚 | utmost, entirely, quite; to use up | |
| 阐 | to disclose; to explain; to open | |
| 郸 | a county in Hebei province | |
| 啴 | many; to pant | |
| 惮 | to fear, to dread; to dislike, to avoid | |
| 掸 | to dust; a duster | |
| 箪 | a small bamboo basket for rice | |
| 婵 | beautiful, graceful, lovely, pretty | |
| 瘅 | bitter hatred; drought | |
| 觯 | a horn of wine |