冬

冬 (dōng) means 'winter' — the cold season from roughly December through February in the northern hemisphere. The character carries the 冫 (ice) component at the bottom in some forms, evoking frost. In modern Chinese 冬 is mostly a bound morpheme: stand-alone, native speakers say 冬天 (dōngtiān, 'winter day' → winter as a season) or 冬季 (dōngjì, 'winter season,' slightly more formal / written).

冬 itself appears throughout compounds: 冬天 (winter), 冬季 (winter season), 冬至 (Dōngzhì, winter solstice), 冬眠 (dōngmián, to hibernate), 立冬 (Lìdōng, the start-of-winter solar term). The four seasons in Mandarin are 春夏秋冬 (chūn xià qiū dōng) — memorise that fixed order. China's north has long, snowy winters; the south stays mild — geography shapes how people use the word.