Chinese Character Wiki
西

xī

west

西 was written two different ways in ancient scripts: (1) a pictograph of a bird's nest, and (2) a variant of the phonetically similar 囟.

Evolution

西 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
西 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
西 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

西  

xī

west(ern); westward, occident; west

西  

Xī

the West; abbr. for Spain 西班牙[Xī​bān​yá]; Spanish

Most common words with 西
Freq.
Word
Meaning

东西

thing

西

west

西部

western part

西方

the West

西班牙

Spain

Component uses

Sound component in 10 characters (0 verified)

牺 洒 栖 茜 哂 硒 溧 粞 恓 舾

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

晒

Unknown component in 1 character (1 verified)

垔

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*s-nˤər

sej

xī

west

*s-nˤər

sej

xī

west


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 98.0939% of movies

143rd most common character in movies

167th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Unicode

U+897F

Shuowen

“西，鳥在巢上，象形。日在西方而鳥棲，故因以為東西之西。”


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