Chinese Character Wiki
县

xiàn

county

Original meaning: 

suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components
首 iconic component

首  Iconic component

shǒu

  

head

Depicts a severed head.

木 iconic component

木  Iconic component

mù

  

tree

系 deleted component

系  Deleted component

xì, jì

  

system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Evolution

县 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
县 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Traditional script

Modern
县 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

县 (縣) 

xiàn

county, district, subdivision; county

Most common words with 县
Freq.
Word
Meaning

县

county

县政府

county administration

县城

county seat

县委

CPC county committee

县级

county level

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

悬

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

悬

Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 2.9793% of movies

2514th most common character in movies

877th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Traditional

縣

Unicode

U+53BF


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