Chinese Character Wiki
冠

guān, guàn

cap

Pictograph of a person (元) wearing a hat (冃). 元 also represents the sound. The 寸 (hand) component was added later to possibly indicate the hat is being held and put onto the head.

Components
冃 iconic component

冃  Iconic component

mào

  

cap

Modern form looks like unrelated 冖.

元 sound,iconic component

元  Sound Iconic component

yuán

  

first

Depicts a person.

寸 iconic component

寸  Iconic component

cùn

  

(hand), inch

Evolution

冠 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
冠 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

冠  

guān

cap, crown, headgear; hat; crown; crest; cap

冠  

Guàn

surname Guan

冠  

guàn

to put on a hat; to be first; to dub

Most common words with 冠
Freq.
Word
Meaning

冠军

champion

冠

hat

夺冠

to seize the crown

皇冠

crown (headgear)

王冠

crown

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k.ʔ]ˤor

kwan

guān

cap (n.)

*k.ʔˤor-s

kwanH

guàn

cap (v.)


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 17.1072% of movies

1265th most common character in movies

1713th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+51A0

Shuowen

“冠，絭也。所以絭髮，弁冕之總名也。从冖，从元，元亦聲。冠有法制，从寸。”


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