| 蚕茧 | cán jiǎn | silkworm cocoon | |
| 老茧 | lǎo jiǎn | callus (patch or hardened skin); corns (on feet); also 老趼 | |
| 作茧自缚 | zuò jiǎn zì fù | to spin a cocoon around oneself (idiom); enmeshed in a trap of one's own devising; hoist by his own petard | |
| 茧子 | jiǎn zi | callus (patch or hardened skin); corns (on feet); also 趼子 | |
| 抽丝剥茧 | chōu sī bāo jiǎn | lit. to spin silk from cocoons; fig. to make a painstaking investigation (idiom) |
| 1 | It's a silkworm cocoon. | |
| 2 | A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly. | |
| 3 | Its emergence from entombment as a chrysalis may have inspired ideas about human resurrection. | |
| 4 | Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. | |
| 5 | Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. |