Chinese Character Wiki
反

fǎn

reverse

Original meaning: 

climb

Pictograph of a hand (又) climbing a cliff (厂). Based on original meaning "climb", now written as 扳. The meaning later shifted to "pull" and "reverse".

Components
厂 iconic component

厂  Iconic component

hǎn, chǎng

  

cliff, (roof)

又 iconic component

又  Iconic component

yòu

  

(hand), again

Depicts a hand.

Evolution

反 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
反 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

反  

fǎn

reverse, opposite, contrary, anti; contrary; in reverse; inside out or upside down; to reverse; to return; to oppose; opposite; against; anti-; to rebel; to use analogy; instead; abbr. for 反切[fǎn​qiè] phonetic system

Most common words with 反
Freq.
Word
Meaning

反应

to react

反对

to oppose

反

contrary

反正

anyway

反映

to mirror

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

返 叛

Sound component in 13 characters (4 verified)

版 板 飯 饭 返 販 贩 扳 阪 坂 畈 舨 钣

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[b]ˤranʔ

baenX

fǎn

dignified, grand

*Cə.panʔ

pjonX

fǎn

reverse (v.)


Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 79.1446% of movies

433rd most common character in movies

237th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+53CD

Shuowen

“反，覆也。从又、厂。反形。，古文。”


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