Chinese Character Wiki
沙

shā

sand

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 少 represents the sound.

Components
氵 meaning component

氵  Meaning component

shui, shuǐ

  

water

氵 is a component form of 水.

少 sound,iconic component

少  Sound Iconic component

shǎo, shào

  

few

少 depicts four small grains of sand.

Evolution

沙 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

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

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
沙 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
沙 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

沙  

shā

sand, gravel, pebbles; granulated; granule; hoarse; raspy; sand; powder; CL:粒[lì]; abbr. for Tsar or Tsarist Russia

沙  

Shā

surname Sha

Most common words with 沙
Freq.
Word
Meaning

沙

granule

沙发

sofa (loanword)

沙漠

desert

沙滩

beach

长沙

Changsha prefecture-level city and capital of Hunan province in south central China

Component uses

Sound component in 8 characters (0 verified)

莎 鯊 鲨 娑 裟 挲 痧 桫

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*sˤraj

srae

shā

sand


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 35.2715% of movies

926th most common character in movies

848th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Unicode

U+6C99

Shuowen

“沙，水石也。从水，从少，水少沙見。楚東有沙水。譚長說，沙，或从尐。”


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