Chinese Character Wiki
般

bān, pán

sort

Original meaning: 

tray

Phonosemantic compound. 殳 represents the meaning and 凡 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "tray", now written as 盤/槃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The original 凡 component was later corrupted to 舟 (boat).

Components
凡 sound,iconic component

凡  Sound Iconic component

fán

  

all

Pictograph of a tray. Later corrupted to 舟.

殳 meaning component

殳  Meaning component

shū

  

weapon or tool

Depicts a hand holding a weapon or utensil.

Evolution

般 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
般 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

般  

bān

sort, manner, kind, category; sort; kind; class; way; manner

般  

pán

see 般樂|般乐[pán​lè]

Most common words with 般
Freq.
Word
Meaning

一般

same

般

sort

一般来说

generally speaking

般配

to suit

这般

like this

Component uses

Sound component in 5 characters (3 verified)

盤 搬 槃 磐 瘢

Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 42.1592% of movies

1032nd most common character in movies

629th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Unicode

U+822C

Shuowen

“般，辟也。象舟之旋，从舟，从殳。殳，所以旋也。，古文般从支。”


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