轮流

• Pinyin: lún liú
• Hanzi breakdown: 轮 = 车 (wheel) + 仑 (order/rotation); 流 = 氵 (water) + 㐬 (flowing current)

Meaning

Take turns; do something alternately or in rotation. Each person or group performs an action in sequence.

Common in everyday speech for sharing tasks, duties, or opportunities. More informal than 轮换. Often appears with verbs: 轮流发言 (take turns speaking), 轮流值班 (take turns on duty), 轮流主持 (take turns hosting).

Examples

1. 小组成员轮流发言，每人有五分钟时间陈述自己的观点和建议。 Group members spoke in turn, with five minutes each to present their views and suggestions.
2. 为了公平分担家务，这对夫妻约定每周轮流负责烹饪和打扫工作。 To share household chores fairly, the couple agreed to take turns each week cooking and cleaning.
3. 几位教授轮流为研究生讲授这门跨学科的综合课程。 Several professors take turns teaching this interdisciplinary course for graduate students.

Usage Guide

Context: daily life, education, workplace, social

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 研讨会上，与会学者按顺序轮流就各自的研究成果进行简短汇报，之后开放集体讨论环节。(At the seminar, participating scholars took turns presenting brief reports on their respective research findings, after which a group discussion was opened.)
• 公司决定让几位资深经理轮流担任项目督导，以确保不同专业视角在整个项目周期中得到充分体现。(The company decided to have several senior managers take turns serving as project supervisors to ensure different professional perspectives were fully reflected throughout the project cycle.)

Don't Say

• 用轮流替代轮换来表示正式的制度性岗位轮换 — 轮流 is informal and conversational; for institutional or scheduled rotation of positions, use 轮换

Origin & History

轮 (wheel, cycle) + 流 (flow, sequence) — flowing through a cycle, like a wheel turning

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal