捐

juān

扌 + 肙

HSK 2.0Level 5

HSK 3.0Level 5

Definitions

juān (verb) to donate; to contribute

juān (noun) tax

juān (verb) to abandon

Etymology phono-semantic

hand

Semantic: 扌 Phonetic: 肙

About

The character 捐 is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 扌 (hand) indicates a manual action, while 肙 gives the pronunciation. Its original meanings were to discard, abandon, or relinquish something. Over time the sense shifted to voluntarily giving money or property for a cause, yielding modern meanings like donate, contribute, or subscribe, and was later extended to denote taxes and levies collected by authorities.

Etymology Hide

Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Traditional Modern

Simplified Modern

Example Sentences Hide

我捐了一些书。

Wǒ juānle yīxiē shū.

I donated some books.

她捐衣服给穷人。

Tā juān yīfu gěi qióngrén.

She donates clothes to the poor.

昨天我们捐款了。

Zuótiān wǒmen juānkuǎn le.

Yesterday we donated money.

公司捐赠了电脑。

Gōngsī juānzèngle diànnǎo.

The company donated computers.

他为慈善机构捐款。

Tā wèi císhàn jīgòu juānkuǎn.

He donates money to charity.

如果你有钱，可以捐出来。

Rúguǒ nǐ yǒu qián, kěyǐ juān chūlái.

If you have money, you can donate it.

她不仅捐款，还捐了时间。

Tā bùjǐn juānkuǎn, hái juānle shíjiān.

She not only donated money, but also donated time.

为了帮助灾区人民，许多志愿者捐出了自己的积蓄。

Wèile bāngzhù zāiqū rénmín, xǔduō zhìyuànzhě juānchūle zìjǐ de jīxù.

To help the people in the disaster area, many volunteers donated their own savings.

Related Characters

Component: 扌

Component: 肙

捐