About
The character for "island", now written as 岛 in its simplified form, is a semantic-phonetic compound. Its traditional counterpart is 島, which shares the same essential structure of the component 山 (mountain) placed beneath a component representing a bird, historically 鳥. This construction visually suggests a landmass, akin to a mountain, where birds might alight or reside, capturing the concept of an isolated landform surrounded by water. Over time, the character’s application became specifically fixed to mean "island", moving from a broader sense of a elevated or bird-inhabited land to its current precise geographical definition.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这是一个美丽的岛。
我们坐船去那个岛。
海岛上的风景很迷人。
这个岛屿有许多独特的动植物。
如果想去那座岛，必须提前预订船票。
尽管那个岛很偏远，但每年还是吸引大量游客。
科学家们正在研究这座岛屿的地质结构和生态系统。
由于全球气候变暖，海平面上升，许多低洼岛屿面临被淹没的危险。