轮船
lún chuán · HSK 4
ship
🚢 轮船 = wheel + boat (paddle-wheel steamer)
轮 means wheel and 船 means boat or ship. The compound literally names a paddle-wheel boat, which is how steamships were first known in Chinese — the giant side wheels churning the water.
轮 — car radical 车 + 仑 (phonetic)
轮 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 车 (chē, 'cart/vehicle') gives the meaning, since 轮 originally referred to a wheel. The right side 仑 supplies the sound 'lún'. From 'wheel' it extended to related senses like 'rotate', 'take turns', and 'round'.
船 — boat radical 舟 + 㕣 (phonetic)
船 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 舟 depicts a boat and gives the meaning, while the right side 㕣 originally suggested the sound. Together they refer to a ship or vessel, a meaning that has stayed stable since early seal script.