nǚ, rǔ
woman
Depicts a woman sitting or squatting down.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernComponent uses
Meaning component in 142 characters (29 verified)
好 她 始 妈 媽 姐 娘 孃 婚 姑 姆 姓 妹 妙 奶 婆 媒 娜 娃 姻 妮 姊 姨 娶 妆 妝 姬 娄 姒 嫌 妖 妨 姿 奸 姦 嫁 妄 嫂 娇 嬌 耍 媚 姚 媳 姜 娛 娱 嫩 娟 妒 姪 嫉 妓 娥 婉 姥 娅 婭 婶 嬸 婢 婪 婿 嫦 妞 娴 嫻 嬉 嫖 嫣 妊 娼 娠 婷 嫡 姗 媲 婵 嬋 嫔 嬪 娓 妩 嫵 媛 娩 婊 娲 媧 娑 孀 媾 婀 姣 佞 妍 娣 囡 妲 嬗 妪 嫗 嬷 姘 婕 媸 娌 妗 婺 媪 嫠 奼 姹 娉 妯 娆 嬈 嫱 嬖 嫘 婧 嫒 嬲 姝 妣 娈 嫜 孌 妁 嫫 媵 妤 妳 姫 姮 娭 媕 媠 媷 嫚 嫪 嬛
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*nraʔ | nrjoX | nǚ | female |
*nraʔ-s | nrjoH | nǜ | give as a wife |
Statistics
HSK level 1
Appears in 97.5172% of movies
105th most common character in movies
224th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 3 |
Unicode | U+5973 |
Shuowen | “女,婦人也。象形。王育說。” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.848
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