昆 kūn elder brother

源How it came to be

The sun over two people, standing one behind the other. Two of a kind, lined up under the same sun. From this come 'together', 'a crowd' and 'the older of two brothers'.

用How it is used

• Bound morpheme - it almost never stands alone in modern Chinese.
• Its one everyday job is the first syllable of 昆虫 kūnchóng (insect), a very common word.
• Otherwise it survives mainly in the formal/literary word 昆仲 kūnzhòng (elder and younger brothers), which learners will rarely need to produce.
• Don't try to use 昆 by itself to mean "brother" - that sense is archaic and only lives inside compounds.

字Characters built with 昆

• 棍 stick
• 混 muddy

词Words with 昆

• 昆虫kūnchónginsectHSK 5