Chinese Character Wiki
玄

xuán

black

Originally the same character as 幺. Similar to 幺, with an distinguishing mark at the top.

Components
亠 distinguishing component

亠  Distinguishing component

tóu

  

head

幺 iconic component

幺  Iconic component

me, yāo

  

tiny

Evolution

玄 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
玄 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
玄 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
玄 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

玄  

xuán

deep, profound, abstruse; KangXi radical 95; black; mysterious

Most common words with 玄
Freq.
Word
Meaning

玄

black

玄机

mysterious principles

玄妙

mysterious

玄武

(in Daoism) God of the north sky

玄乎

unreliable

Component uses

Sound component in 10 characters (1 verified)

牽 畜 弦 眩 舷 炫 鉉 铉 泫 痃

Iconic component in 2 characters (2 verified)

鯀 鲧

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ɢ]ʷˤi[n]

hwen

xuán

dark


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 1.6338% of movies

2898th most common character in movies

1717th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+7384

Shuowen

“玄，幽遠也。黑而有赤色者為玄。象幽而入覆之也。，古文玄。”


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