沦

淪

lún

仑 + 氵

Definitions

lún (verb) to sink; to decline; to fall into ruin

Etymology

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 仑 represents the sound. Simplified form of 淪.

Semantic: 氵 Phonetic: 仑

About

沦 is a phono-semantic compound combining the water radical 氵 (meaning) and 仑 (sound), a simplified form of 侖. The traditional character 淪 featured 侖, which originally depicted assembling bamboo slips and conveyed logical order. Its primary sense is sinking or becoming submerged in water, a physical action that later expanded metaphorically to describe decline, ruin, or falling into a negative state. The simplification from 淪 to 沦 changed the phonetic component but preserved the original sound and meaning.

Etymology Hide

Bronze Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

他的故乡沦陷了。

Tā de gùxiāng lúnxiànle.

His hometown fell into enemy occupation.

那段历史是国土沦丧的悲剧。

Nà duàn lìshǐ shì guótǔ lúnsàng de bēijù.

That period of history is a tragedy of national territory being lost.

战乱使许多繁华城市沦为废墟。

Zhànluàn shǐ xǔduō fánhuá chéngshì lúnwèi fèixū.

The war turned many prosperous cities into ruins.

经济危机使国家沦为难民输出地。

Jīngjì wēijī shǐ guójiā lúnwèi nànmín shūchū dì.

The economic crisis reduced the country to an exporter of refugees.

她不甘心沦为一个平庸的家庭主妇。

Tā bù gānxīn lúnwéi yīgè píngyōng de jiātíng zhǔfù.

She is unwilling to degenerate into an ordinary housewife.

这个港口曾沦为他国的殖民地。

Zhège gǎngkǒu céng lúnwèi tā guó de zhímíndì.

This port once fell and became a colony of another country.

精神的贫瘠比物质的匮乏更容易让人沦落。

Jīngshén de pínjí bǐ wùzhì de kuìfá gèng róngyì ràng rén lúnluò.

Spiritual barrenness is more likely to cause a person to degenerate than material scarcity.

若不坚守道德底线, 人类文明恐将彻底沦丧。

Ruò bù jiānshǒu dàodé dǐxiàn, rénlèi wénmíng kǒng jiāng chèdǐ lúnsàng.

If moral bottom lines are not upheld, human civilization may completely degenerate.

Related Characters

Component: 仑

Component: 氵

沦