Hangul syllable 융

On Korean 2-set QWERTY, press d-b-d. It maps those keys to initial ㅇ, vowel ㅠ and final ㅇ, and the input method joins them into 융. A Korean mobile 2-set keyboard uses the same order; 10-key layouts use different taps.

Jamo are Hangul's consonant and vowel building blocks. In this syllable, ㅇ starts it, ㅠ is the vowel, and ㅇ closes it.

Is 융 a word?

융 is a syllable, not a word with one fixed translation. In 융합, the full Korean word means “fusion” or “blending,” and 융 is its first syllable. The whole word supplies that meaning.

Why was Hangul created?

To give Korean speakers an easier way to write their language. Hangul was devised in 1443; Hunminjeongeum, a guide to its purpose and principles, was published in 1446. It offered an easier way to write Korean than the Chinese-character-based systems then in use.

Earlier Korean writing practices—Idu, Gugyeol and Hyangchal—adapted Chinese characters to record Korean. They predate Hangul, but are not components of 융. The syllable itself decomposes into conjoining jamo ᄋ (initial consonant), ᅲ (vowel) and ᆼ (final consonant).

Hangul became an official national writing system in 1894. It lost that status after Japanese rule began in 1910. After Korea's liberation from Japanese rule, standardization established it as the everyday writing system for modern Korean.