wàn
ten thousand
Originally a pictograph of a scorpion. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Jin dynasty (266-420 AD)Regular script
ModernMost common words with 萬
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
ten thousand | ||
Your Majesty | ||
ten million | ||
very much | ||
omnipotent |
Component uses
Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*C.ma[n]-s | mjonH | wàn | 10,000 |
Statistics
Not found in HSK word list
Appears in 74.1310% of movies
381st most common character in movies
322nd most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 12 |
Simplified | |
Unicode | U+842C |
Shuowen | “萬,蟲也。从厹,象形。” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.954-955
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