肺

• Pinyin: fèi
• Hanzi breakdown: 肺 = 月 (meat/body radical) + 巿 (phonetic component) — body organ related to breathing

Meaning

Lung; lungs. The respiratory organ in the chest cavity responsible for breathing.

Used in medical contexts, health discussions, and idiomatic expressions. Common compounds include 肺炎 (pneumonia), 肺癌 (lung cancer), 肺活量 (lung capacity). The idiom 肺腑之言 means words from the bottom of one's heart. In traditional Chinese medicine, the lung is associated with the metal element and governs qi and respiration.

Examples

1. 长期吸烟会严重损害肺的功能，增加患癌风险。 Long-term smoking seriously damages lung function and increases the risk of cancer.
2. 医生建议他戒烟，因为X光片显示他的肺已经出现了问题。 The doctor advised him to quit smoking because the X-ray showed his lungs already had problems.
3. 跑马拉松需要强大的肺活量，平时要坚持有氧训练。 Running a marathon requires strong lung capacity, so you need to maintain aerobic training regularly.

Usage Guide

Context: medical, health, anatomy

Tone: clinical

Do Say

• 空气污染对肺的伤害很大。(Air pollution causes significant damage to the lungs.)
• 他做了肺部CT检查，结果一切正常。(He had a lung CT scan, and the results were all normal.)

Don't Say

• 把心肺复苏说成心脏复苏 (Don't say 心脏复苏 when you mean CPR — the correct term is 心肺复苏, which includes both heart and lung resuscitation)

Origin & History

Pictophonetic character: 月 (meat/body radical, originally 肉) provides the semantic component indicating a body part, while 巿 (fèi) was the original phonetic component.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal