轉

轉 (Kangxi radical 159, 車+11, 18 strokes, cangjie input 十十十戈戈 (JJJII), four-corner 5504₃, composition ⿰車專)

• 囀(𫝚/啭), 𡤛, 𮁗, 𮎀, 𩧜

• 転 (Japanese shinjitai)
• 转 (Simplified Chinese)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1248, character 17
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 38507
• Dae Jaweon: page 1726, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3552, character 4
• Unihan data for U+8F49

Historical forms of the character 轉
Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Qin slip script	Small seal script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *tonʔ, *tons): semantic 車 (“carriage”) + phonetic 專 (OC *tjon).

Possibly related to:

• Old Tibetan འདྲུལ ('drul, “to transmit; to communicate”) (Schuessler, 2007), or
• Tibetan སྲུལ (srul, “to move to and fro; to stir”), Burmese ရွေ့ (rwe., “to move; to be displaced”), ရွှေ့ (hrwe., “to move or shift something”) (Starostin).

An allofam is perhaps *don (“round”). Compare Vietnamese tròn (“round; circle; entire; whole”), trọn (“fully; completely; all”), as well as the following Chinese words:

• 團 (OC *doːn, “ball; circle; lump”),
• 摶 (OC *doːn, *doːn, *donʔ, “to roll up into a ball”).

Derivative: 傳 (OC *tons, *don, *dons, “to relay; to pass on; to transfer; relay station; biography; record”).

轉

1. (transitive) to turn; to revolve
2. to wind; to entwine
3. winding; circuitous
4. (transitive) to change; to shift; to alter

   轉換／转换  ―  zhuǎnhuàn  ―  to change

   轉大人／转大人   ―  tńg tāi-jîn   ―  to become an adult

   轉敗為勝／转败为胜  ―  zhuǎn bài wèi shèng  ―  to turn defeat into victory

5. to change direction; to turn
6. (Southwestern Mandarin, dialectal Cantonese, Hakka, Min, Wu) to return; to come or go back

   Alternative form: (Southern Min) 返

   轉來／转来   ―  ⁵tsoe-le   ―  to come back; to return

   轉去／转去   ―  ⁵tsoe-chi   ―  to go back; to return

7. (Wu) to think; to contemplate; to turn over in one's mind
8. (Xiamen Hokkien) to mediate; to reconcile
9. (dialectal Mandarin, Cantonese) Classifier for times or round trips.
10. to change position; to move
11. to wave; to flutter
12. to divert; to transfer
13. to evade; to avoid
14. to be transferred to another post
15. to sell; to transfer the ownership
16. to transport; to relay; to carry in a cart
17. to discard; to abandon
18. to leave; to depart
19. to chant; to utter (spell); to recite
20. (Mainland China Hokkien) to circulate capital to meet financial need for turnover
21. a surname

The Cantonese reading 'zyun2' bears the meaning "to turn, transfer" whereas the reading 'zyun3' means "to revolve".

• (to change direction):

• (to return):

轉

1. (intransitive) to revolve; to rotate; to turn
2. revolution; rotation; turn
3. (Cantonese, dialectal Hakka, dialectal Min, dialectal Wu) hair whorl
4. number of times; time
5. to wind around; to go around; bypass
6. to lose (way); to get lost
7. (colloquial) to stroll; to saunter; to amble; to wander

   • 假日到河灘上轉轉，看見許多孩子在放風箏。
     假日到河滩上转转，看见许多孩子在放风筝。

     From: 李恆瑞, 風箏暢想曲

     Jiàrì dào hétān shàng zhuànzhuan, kànjiàn xǔduō háizi zài fàng fēngzheng.

     At the holiday, I went strolling on the riverbank where I saw some kids flying kites.

8. alternative form of 囀 / 啭 (zhuàn, “to chirp; to warble; to chirrup”)
9. (music) RPM

   78轉黑膠／78转黑胶  ―  78 zhuàn hēijiāo  ―  78 RPM record

轉

1. (Mandarin, colloquial) alternative form of 拽 (“to act pretentiously; to show off”)

轉

1. (Min) to twist with force or with a tool

• “轉”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

(Jinmeiyō kanji, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 転)

1. (to) shift
2. (to) move
3. (to) turn

• Go-on: てん (ten)
• Kan-on: てん (ten)
• Kun: ころぶ (korobu, 轉ぶ)、ころがす (korogasu, 轉がす)、ころがる (korogaru, 轉がる)、ころげる (korogeru, 轉げる)、めぐる (meguru)、まろぶ (marobu, 轉ぶ)、うつる (utsuru, 轉る)
• Nanori: うたた (utata)

From Middle Chinese 轉 (MC trjwenX|trjwenH). Recorded as Middle Korean 뎐〯 (tyěn) (Yale: tyen) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

轉

Wikisource

轉 (eumhun 구를 전 (gureul jeon))

1. hanja form^? of 전 (“(to) turn; (to) move”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

轉: Hán Nôm readings: chuyển, chuyên, chuyền, chuyến

1. (to) shift
2. (to) move
3. (to) turn

• Nom Foundation