Chinese Character Wiki
塞

sāi, sài, sè

stop up

Depicts two hands (廾) stuffing various objects (工) into an enclosed space (宀). The 土 (earth) component was added later.

Components
宀 iconic component

宀  Iconic component

mián

  

roof

工 iconic component

工  Iconic component

gōng

  

work

工 iconic component

工  Iconic component

gōng

  

work

廾 iconic component

廾  Iconic component

gǒng

  

two hands

土 meaning component

土  Meaning component

tǔ

  

earth

Evolution

塞 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

塞  

sāi

stop up, block, seal, cork; pass, frontier; fortress; to stop up; to squeeze in; to stuff; cork; stopper

塞  

Sāi

Serbia; Serbian; abbr. for 塞爾維亞|塞尔维亚[Sāi​'ěr​wéi​yà]

塞  

sài

strategic pass; tactical border position

塞  

sè

to cope with

Most common words with 塞
Freq.
Word
Meaning

塞

to stop up

堵塞

to clog up

活塞

piston

巴塞罗那

Barcelona

阻塞

to block

Component uses

Sound component in 3 characters (2 verified)

賽 赛 噻

Remnant component in 2 characters (2 verified)

賽 赛

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[s]ˤək-s

sojH

sài

frontier

*[s]ˤək-s

sojH

sài

pass (n.)

*[s]ˤək

sok

sè

stop up, block (v.)


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 31.8116% of movies

956th most common character in movies

1080th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

13

Unicode

U+585E

Shuowen

“塞，隔也。从土，从。”


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