How to Write 沦 (lún) — Meaning “to sink; to fall into”

Imagine a loon (a diving bird) plunging into water: the sound "lún" is like "loon," and the bird sinks below the surface. Picture the left side 氵 as water and the right side 仑 as the bird's body diving down. This visual connects the pronunciation and meaning.

First write the three dots of 氵 from top to bottom, each slightly angled. Then write 仑: start with the top 人 (left-falling stroke then right-falling stroke), followed by 匕 (horizontal, then vertical hook with a leftward flick). A common mistake is making the 匕 part too wide or placing the left dot of 氵 too far from the rest.

Compared to 㳄 (a rare character meaning saliva), 沦 uses 仑 on the right while 㳄 uses 欠, and 沦 means "to sink" whereas 㳄 relates to drool. Compared to 氿 (meaning a spring of water, with right part 九), 沦 has a different right component and a completely different meaning — sinking versus flowing water.

沦 appears in formal or written Chinese, often with negative meanings like 沦陷 (to fall to the enemy, as in a city being occupied) or 沦落 (to become destitute). A cultural example is 南京沦陷, referring to the fall of Nanjing in 1937, a key historical event.

Common words containing 沦 include: 沦陷 (lún xiàn) — to fall to the enemy; to be occupied; 沦落 (lún luò) — to fall low; to be reduced to a wretched state; 沦为 (lún wèi) — to be reduced to; to sink to.