Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

練

liàn

white silk

Phono-semantic compound 形聲
HSK 2
TOCFL 5
radical 糸
15 strokes

Etymology graph

inherited
borrowed
derived
parts
meaning component
sound component
related

Press enter or space to select a node. You can then use the arrow keys to move the node around. Press delete to remove it and escape to cancel.

Press enter or space to select an edge. You can then press delete to remove it or escape to cancel.

點擊節點放大 · Click a node to zoom in

Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɡ·reːns): semantic 糸 (“silk”) + phonetic 柬 (OC *kreːnʔ).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

meaningChinese糸 “thin silk”
soundChinese柬 “letter; note; invitation”
- ideaChinese束 “to bind; to tie up”
- ideaChinese八 “eight”

Meanings

character

white silk
to boil and scour raw silk
to practice; to drill; to exercise; to train
experienced; familiar
a surname
to throw; to take out

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

練：湅繒也。从糸柬聲。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

柔軟潔白的絲絹。例：白練、波平如練
利用反覆學習的方法，使技巧、動作等精熟。例：練兵、練舞、練球
姓。

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 練 was written 字形演變

Chu slips & silk
楚系簡帛
Warring States
Small seal
說文小篆
Shuowen, c. 100 CE
Regular
楷書
since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
Wiktionary: 練