Chinese Character Wiki
严

yán

strict

Simplified form of 嚴. Phonosemantic compound. 喦 represents the meaning and 敢 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "exaggerate". The meaning later shifted to "extreme", "severe", and "strict". The traditional component 敢 was removed for simplification.

Components
喦 meaning component

喦  Meaning component

niè

  

talkative

敢 deleted component

敢  Deleted component

gǎn

  

to dare

The traditional component 敢 was removed for simplification.

Evolution

严 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
严 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
严 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
严 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

严 (嚴) 

yán

strict, rigorous, rigid; stern; tight (closely sealed); strict; rigorous; severe; father

严 (嚴) 

Yán

surname Yan

Most common words with 严
Freq.
Word
Meaning

严重

grave

严格

strict

严肃

solemn

尊严

dignity

严

stern

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

酽

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

俨 酽

Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 55.2619% of movies

855th most common character in movies

545th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Traditional

嚴

Unicode

U+4E25


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