Chinese Character Wiki
三

sān

three

Three horizontal strokes, representing the number three.

Evolution

三 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
三 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
三 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
三 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
三 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

三  

sān

three; 3

三  

Sān

surname San

Most common words with 三
Freq.
Word
Meaning

三

3

三国

Three Kingdoms period (220-280) in Chinese history

三星

the belt of Orion

周三

Wednesday

三角

triangle

Component uses

Meaning component in 3 characters (2 verified)

参 參 叁

Sound component in 4 characters (2 verified)

参 參 仨 闫

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*s.rum (*s.r- > s-; infl. by 四 *s-?)

sam

sān

three

*s.r[u]m-s (*s.r- > *s-, infl. by 四 *s-?)

samH

sān

three times


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 87.9545% of movies

295th most common character in movies

125th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+4E09

Shuowen

“三，天地人之道也。从三數。弎，古文三从弋。”


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