User:WiktionariThrowaway/Gallery of interesting Han characters



Welcome to the Gallery of interesting Han characters!

If you want to edit the gallery, go ahead! I don't mind.

(Note: all pronunciations are given in Standard Mandarin unless indicated otherwise, and all MC and OC reconstructions are Zhengzhang. Characters not in Unicode are represented using the "tofu" place holder symbol, □.)

Breakables

 * 乒乓 - Ping pong! I'm sure most of us already know this one. Originally an onomatopoeia that was later used to refer specifically to this sport.
 * Pronunciation: pīngpāng
 * 𩰋 and 𩰊 （separate halves of 鬥) - variants of and  respectively.
 * Pronunciation: jú, jǐ / jí
 * 彳亍 - "to walk slowly". Cognate with, , , all meaning "walking slowly or with difficulty → hesitant".
 * Pronunciation: chì chù
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʈʰiᴇk̚ ʈʰɨok̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): tʰeɡ tʰoɡ
 * 孑孓 (variant: 𡤼孒) - "mosquito larvae". The first character in isolation can also mean "lonely".
 * Pronunciation: jiéjué
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): kit3 kyut3
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): kˠiᴇt̚ kʉɐt̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ked kʷad
 * 曱甴 (similar to 甲由, which is sometimes used as a replacement, but with the top and bottom parts of the vertical stroke omitted) - another term for a kind of bug: the cockroach. This is a Cantonese dialectal term which used to be rather obscure to Mandarin speakers, until the end of roughly the 2010s when the Internet brought it to attention again, because of 1) the Hong Kong protests (when it became a derogatory slur for protesters) and 2) Internet personalities (mostly from the Mainland, I'm pretty sure) doing "how many characters can you create by adding one stroke to 日" challenges. Hokkien has a similar term pronounced "ka-choa̍h", "kǎ-choa̍h", or "ka-chōa", but it is more often written as 虼蚻. Ultimately, the term most likely originates from a Mon-Khmer substratum, like many terms exclusive to southern dialects. I've seen several attempts at Mandarin pronunciations, such as "yuēyóu", but none are satisfactory or widely accepted.
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): gaat6 zaat6-2, gat6 zat6-2, gaat6 zaat6, gat6 zat6
 * 𠁣𠃛 (separate halves of 門) - another onomatopoeia, this time from the Hokkien dialect, and representing the sound of a door creaking. It can also mean "convoluted" or "not straightforward".
 * Pronunciation (Hokkien): ihⁿ-oa̍ihⁿ / īⁿ-oaiⁿ / īⁿ-oa̍ihⁿ
 * 𰍧𰍨 (separate halves of 小) - a dialectal term from Sichuanese Mandarin with a similar meaning to : a tiny bit.
 * Pronunciation (Sichuanese Mandarin): di1 / din1 ga1
 * 𰛄𰛅 (separate halves of 水) - yet another onomatopoeia, representing the sound of water splashing. The first character can also stand alone, pronounced as ā, with the meaning "sunken" and used in place names (similar to 凹).
 * Pronunciation: pàilài / pàilè
 * 𠀫𠀪 (separate halves of 其) - "The sound produced when walking along Nining Rd in Hangzhou, used in place names." Now that's a bit... awfully specific, don't you say? It's also used in Vietnamese as chữ Nôm, but as a verb pronounced "khề khà" meaning "to have a drunken brawl".
 * Pronunciation: jīgé
 * Pronunciation (Wu): Good question
 * 𬻍𬻌 - Breakable characters derived from 東, pronounced similarly to 叮咚 and likely also of onomatopoeic meaning. From the Huizhou dialect. (source: 《婺北麟清字汇》) Also used separately in Zhuang sawndip.
 * 𡉅𡉆 (吉 with the bottom and top 一 in the 口 removed respectively, except the top is 土 instead of 士) - Shaanxi dialect. The dictionary it comes from says that it is pronounced like "⿰礻各喇", which isn't exactly helpful considering that the first character is equally obscure. (I'm going to hazard a guess that ⿰礻各 is a variant of 祫, which would make the equivalent Standard Mandarin reading "xiála".) Means "to sew, to patch, to mend".
 * □□ (猪 with the bottom and top 一 in the 日 removed respectively) - Shaanxi dialect. The Standard Mandarin reading would be "kèlóu". Means "piglet".
 * □□ (right and left halves of 非 respectively) - onomatopoeia for the sound of wings flapping.
 * Pronunciation: pūlù

Stacks
There are many "N叠字" in Chinese. Some of them are very common, like 品, 哥, 炎, or 森林. However, there are a host of more unorthodox ones.


 * 闁 (門 inside another 門) - variant of . Not sure of the underlying logic, though.
 * Pronunciation: bāo
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): bou1
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): pɑu
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): puː
 * 𤿁 and 𢀎 (𤽄 x3 / ⿱白小 x3 and 𰤔 x3 / ⿱白巛 x3) - variants of utilizing obsolete forms of 泉.
 * Pronunciation: hé
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): ho4
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ɦɑ
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ɡaːl
 * 䆐 (秦 x3) - variant of.
 * Pronunciation: guó
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): gwok3
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): kwək̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): kʷɯːɡ
 * 龖 and 龘 - see the "obscure definitions" section below.
 * 𪚥 (龍 x4) - variant of . Notable for containing a whopping 64 strokes, although it's not the record holder.
 * Pronunciation: zhé
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): t͡ɕiᴇp̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ʔljob
 * 𠔻 (興 x4) - it's uncertain what this character means. Notable for also containing 64 strokes.
 * Pronunciation: zhèng
 * 𣡽 (林 x4, 木 x8) - the world record holder for most duplications of a character in a character. It's uncertain what this character means too.
 * Pronunciation: shā / qí
 * 𰽔 (鏡 x4) - an unusual variant of the kanji 鏡 used by in his poem Iwate Keibin Tetsudō no Ichigatsu (岩手軽便鉄道の一月) from the poetry anthology Haru to Shura (春と修羅).
 * Pronunciation (Japanese): kagami
 * 𡦪 (子 x6) - it's uncertain what this character means as well. But it's one of the few stacks of six where four is usually the limit.
 * Pronunciation: jí
 * 𱁬 (⿵䨺龘 or ⿱䨺龘; 雲 x3 + 龍 x3) An 85-stroke behemoth with essentially no usage outside of dictionaries, personal names, or business names. But that's still not the record holder...
 * Pronunciation (Japanese): odoto when written in the shape of a pentagon, taito when written with 䨺 written directly on top of 龘
 * 𤴐 (回 x2 sandwiched between 田 x4) - ancient form of with 32 strokes. Maybe with 雨 on top (𩇓): 40 strokes. Maybe just write 雷 4 times (䨻): 52 strokes. Maybe with 4 田 and 1 雨 above 3 口 and 3 田, for a total of 7 田 (□): 57 strokes. There are even attested variants consisting of 𤴐 or 𩇓 (the first two) repeated 4 times, for a grand total of 128 and 160 strokes!
 * Pronunciation: léi
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): leoi4
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): luʌi
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ruːl
 * □ (U+F634, ⿱𠆢⿰⿳𠆢𠆢𠆢⿳𠆢𠆢𠆢) - ???
 * □ (魚 inside another 魚) - means "fish roe"
 * Pronunciation: zǐ (transcribed "dzì̤" in the source that I'm pretty sure uses different tone markings than modern Hanyu Pinyin)

Other dense



 * 𰻞 (Biáng-v22.svg) - the notoriously complex 58-stroke (depending on which of the bajillion variants you consider authoritative) character found in the name of 𰻞𰻞麵, a.k.a. biangbiang noodles. They're from and they're delicious. But people can't seem to quite agree upon what the etymology or glyph origin is; there are almost as many hypotheses as there are variants to this character, some more tenable than others. Onomatopoeic, publicity or marketing stunt, a diner's creative way to get out of paying a bill, or even invention by a premier as early as the ! (And then somehow getting ignored by almost all subsequent historic dictionaries?)
 * Pronunciation: biáng
 * 𱟛 (Zuí_Chongqing.svg) - complex graphical variant of 賊, which means "thief". Notably used by the (Hongmen) secret society during the . To be honest, what probably really happened with "biang" (see above) is that the word for the noodle dish originated as a vernacular term without a real written form before one shop decided to just cobble together a new character with 𱟛 as the inspiration.
 * Pronunciation: zuí
 * Pronunciation (Taishanese): soih4
 * 𨽴 (⿴𨺅⿳⿱龷一⿰个个⿰个个) - a variant of that does a good job pictographically representing its meaning.
 * Pronunciation: ài / è
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): aai3 / ai3 / ak3
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʔˠɛH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qreːɡs

Funky pronunciations

 * 鞥 - the only Chinese character to be pronounced "eng" in Mandarin. Means "reins".
 * Pronunciation: ēng
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): ang1
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʔʌŋ|ʔʌp̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qɯːŋ / qɯːb
 * 囧 - while not the only Chinese character to be pronounced "jiong" in Mandarin (which is still a quite unusual pronunciation), its face-like appearance has led to it becoming a sort of meme on the Chinese Internet.
 * Pronunciation: jiǒng
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): gwing2
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): kˠwiæŋX
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): kʷaŋʔ
 * 耨 - the only Chinese character to be pronounced "nou" in Mandarin. Means "hoe" (well, a similar tool) or "to hoe". Also a rare surname.
 * Pronunciation: nòu
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): nau6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): nəuH|nuok̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): noːɡs / nuːɡ
 * 黁 - the only Chinese character to be pronounced "nun" in Mandarin. Means "fragrance".
 * Pronunciation: nún
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): nuən
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): nuːn

Obscure definitions

 * 猹
 * Pronunciation: chá
 * Definition: possibly hapax; a small, wild, and ferocious animal like a dog or badger of uncertain identity, said to be fond of watermelons, that only appeared once in one of the author 's short stories... or perhaps a water deer, properly originally 獐 but pronounced in Shaoxing Wu
 * 倀
 * Pronunciation: chāng
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): coeng1, caang1, zan3, caang4
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʈʰɨɐŋ|ʈˠæŋH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): tʰaŋ / rtaːŋs
 * Definition 1: insane person
 * Definition 2: ghost of one devoured by a tiger who becomes a servant of the tiger and helps it find more victims
 * 龖 and 龘
 * Pronunciation: dá
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): daap6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): dʌp̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): l'ɯːb
 * Definition: the appearance of a dragon in flight
 * 馘 - this one's quite interesting, even by the standards of this page.
 * Pronunciation 1: guó
 * Pronunciation 1 (Cantonese): gwik1, gwok3
 * Pronunciation 1 (Middle Chinese): kˠwɛk̚
 * Pronunciation 1 (Old Chinese): kʷrɯːɡ
 * Definition 1: traditionally glossed "severed left ear of a slain enemy" or "to sever the left ear of a slain enemy". However, some researchers have suggested that the character originally referred to the practice of, and this original meaning was subsequently suppressed during the by the attempted introduction of a new character, 聝, and new meaning, referring to ears instead of heads, as headhunting eventually came to be seen as barbaric in Chinese culture.
 * Pronunciation 2: xù
 * Definition 2: an ambiguous hapax legomenon found in, possiblly meaning "face", "cheek", or "headache" (the latter of which would make it synonymous with 𤷇).
 * 𢦞 - an ancient character with uncertain meanings and pronunciations. However, one confirmed meaning is a variant of the aforementioned 馘. Given that this character consists of the radicals for "hand/claw" and "halberd/weapon" combined, it probably does not have positive connotations.
 * Pronunciation: (unknown)
 * 閄 - I wonder what the semantic relation to  is.
 * Pronunciation 1: huò
 * Definition 1: the sound produced to scare someone after emerging from hiding;
 * Pronunciation 2: shǎn
 * Definition 2: to suddenly emerge after hiding
 * 𥄉 - inversion of 首, found in the ideogrammatic compound 縣 as well
 * Pronunciation: jiāo
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): keu
 * Definition: an ancient penalty. to remove one's head and hang it upside down
 * 佾
 * Pronunciation: yì
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): jat6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): jiɪt̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): lɯd
 * Definition: a row of dancers during a sacrificial rite
 * 劓
 * Pronunciation: yì
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): ji6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ŋˠiɪH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ŋrids
 * Definition: punishment by cutting off the nose, one of the
 * 驏
 * Pronunciation: zhàn, chǎn
 * Pronunciation: zaan2, can2, cin5
 * Definition: horse without saddle
 * 侲
 * Pronunciation 1: zhèn
 * Pronunciation 1 (Cantonese): zan3
 * Pronunciation 1 (Middle Chinese): t͡ɕiɪnH
 * Pronunciation 1 (Old Chinese): tjɯn
 * Definition 1: (obsolete) page, boy servant; especially one used to drive away ghosts in the ancient times
 * Pronunciation 2: zhēn, zhèn
 * Pronunciation 2 (Middle Chinese): t͡ɕiɪn
 * Pronunciation 2 (Old Chinese): tjɯn
 * Definition 2: someone who breeds horses
 * Pronunciation 3: chēn
 * Definition 3: about to fall facedown (the page even says "clarification needed")
 * 䡓
 * Pronunciation: juàn, xuān
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): hin1
 * Definition: shake of a cart; awning in front of a cart; covering the horse or mule in the shafts; (same as 軒) high front of a chariot or carriage

Nonstandard strokes

 * 〇 - variant glyph for . Not considered a true character by Unicode, however. Also used as for.
 * Pronunciation: líng
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): ling4, leng4, leng4-2
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): leŋ|leŋH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): reːŋ / reːŋs
 * 𠄷 - variant form of . Compare the form 𠫼.
 * Pronunciation: qí
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): cai4
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): d͡zei
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): zliːl
 * 𠆭 - ancient cursive variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: yīn
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): jam1
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʔˠiɪm
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qrɯm
 * 𠇇 - ancient cursive variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: chuán / zhuàn
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): cyun4 / zyun6 / zyun6-2
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ɖˠiuᴇn / ɖˠiuᴇnH / ʈˠiuᴇnH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): don / tons / dons
 * 𠍋 - vulgar variant of 𠎦, which itself is a variant character of.
 * Pronunciation: jiàng
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): goeng6
 * 𠪳 - ancient variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: hǔ
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): fu2
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): huoX
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qʰlaːʔ
 * 𠪳 - ancient variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: hǔ
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): fu2
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): huoX
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qʰlaːʔ
 * 𡆢 - variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: qiú
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): cau4
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): zɨu
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): lju
 * 𡦹 - cursive variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: guān
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): gun1
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): kuɑn
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): koːn
 * 𡧑 - variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: shí
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): sat6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʑiɪt̚
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ɦliɡ
 * 𦹗 - variant form of.
 * Pronunciation: píng / pín
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): ping4 / pan4
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): biɪn
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): bin
 * 𤕈 - ancient variant of
 * whatever this is - variant of both 五 and 網

Inversions

 * 𠄔 (予 upside-down): the original form of, where the ultimate graph origin is much clearer.
 * Pronunciation: huàn
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): waan6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ɦˠuɛnH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ɡʷreːns
 * 㐆 - reverse of, a variant of both and . Used as a component in the ideogrammatic compound.
 * Pronunciation: yǐn / yī
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): jan2 / ji1
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ʔɨnX / ʔɨi
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qɯnʔ / qɯl
 * 𢨋 - variant of 誖
 * 𠄏 - variant of 屌
 * 𧹂 - variant of 贙
 * 𥄉 - inversion of 首
 * 𣥠 - variant of 癶
 * 𨙨 - variant of 邑 or 苑
 * 𨞰 - ancient form of 鄉

Wonky ideograms

 * 凹凸 - these characters aren't actually that unknown. But they sure look weird.
 * Pronunciation: āotū / āotú (Mainland China and Taiwan respectively; dié and gǔ are also variant pronunciations)
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ˠɛp̚ duət̚|det̚
 * 旮旯（兒） - "corner". Probably a of . The glyph origin remains unknown.
 * Pronunciation: gālá(r)
 * 圐圙 (variant: 㗄𠼟) - dialectal term borrowed from Mongolian: ᠬᠦᠷᠢᠶ᠎ᠡ (küryi'e, “enclosure; area”). The glyph is from the idiom . Doublet of.
 * Pronunciation: kūlüè
 * Pronunciation (Jin): kueh4 lye3
 * 嬲 and 嫐 - both meaning "to make fun of" or "to flirt with", and possibly cognate with.
 * Pronunciation: niǎo and nǎo
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): niu5 / niu4 and nou5
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese, 嬲 only): neuX
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese, 嬲 only): neːwʔ
 * Variants of 嬲: 男 x2, 男 x2 on top of 女
 * Variants of 嫐: 女 and 男, 女 x2 on top of 男
 * □ (U+E0F1, ⿱从工) - Resembles but with the "head" of the 土 missing, meaning "to squat".
 * Pronunciation (Ningbo Wu): 5khu

Others

 * 𠀀 - ancient form of and a reversal of 丂, notable for the fact that e (ㄜ) and o (ㄛ) in  are derived from it.
 * Pronunciation: hē, ō
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): ho1, ho2
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): hɑ
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): qʰaːl
 * 𠥓 - the form of.
 * Pronunciation: fāng
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): fong1
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): pʉɐŋ
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): paŋ
 * 𪜀 - cursive variant (?) of the Vietnamese chữ Nôm 羅, meaning "to be".
 * Pronunciation (Vietnamese): là
 * 𠬠 - a Vietnamese chữ Nôm meaning "one", a phono-semantic compound between 一 and 文.
 * Pronunciation (Vietnamese): một
 * 甩 and 甪 - these two characters are pretty goofy, having arisen rather late, and resemble either 用 or 角 (the latter even being a direct graphical descendant of 角). They mean "to come loose" in Cantonese and Min Nan respectively, and 㪐 has the same meaning in Hakka. These senses are kind of messy, and they all trace themselves back to, or "srut" in Old Chinese. What probably happened was that 角 was borrowed phonetically. (This kind of "living fossil" preservation of Old Chinese pronunciations is fairly common in Min Nan.) Aside from that, 甪 is also found in place names in the region for some reason.
 * Pronunciation: shuǎi and lù
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): lat1 and luk6
 * Pronunciation (Hokkien): hiù and lut
 * Definition (Hokkien): "to throw" and "to come loose"
 * 𪜃 - Alternate written form of the Wenzhounese term . Also a variant of 事 solely on account of visual similarity. The aforementioned 甩 can also be used here.
 * Pronunciation: gā
 * Pronunciation (Wenzhou Wu): gɑ
 * 𢀓 - ancient form of.
 * Pronunciation: jù
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ɡɨʌX
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ɡaʔ
 * 𦮙 - ancient form of . But the bottom component (which is not in Unicode) is itself an ancient form of, a pictogram which probably represents either a 4-handled plough or 2 halberds (which would make 癸 the original form of 戣)
 * Pronunciation: kuí
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): ɡiuɪ
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): ɡʷil
 * 卍 and 卐 - variants of 萬.
 * Pronunciation: wàn
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): maan6
 * Pronunciation (Middle Chinese): mʉɐnH
 * Pronunciation (Old Chinese): mlans
 * 𨑨迌 - a Hokkien term meaning "to play". I'm not sure what the sun and the moon have to do with this term.
 * Pronunciation (Hokkien): chhit-thô / thit-thô
 * Pronunciation (Teochow): tig4 to5 / têg4 to5
 * □□ - characters derived from 日月 but with the middle strokes left out, pronounced similarly to 混沌. From the Huizhou dialect. (source: 《婺北乡音》)
 * 㐃 - not a Chinese character but a Korean-coined character for the syllable 마 (ma), a pictograph for the word 마치 (machi), now 망치 (mangchi) in South Korea, meaning "hammer". The more standard form is 亇, but this form makes it here for being one of the only Han characters to contain a triangle.
 * Pronunciation (Korean): 마 (ma)
 * 𢑚 - variant of 申
 * 屲
 * Pronunciation (Mandarin): wā
 * Pronunciation (Cantonese): saan1
 * Definition: slope; mountainside; hillside