弦 · xián
string; hypotenuse, crescent
Meanings & readings
Meaning & readings
string; hypotenuse, crescent
- Mandarin
- xián
- Cantonese
- jin4
Unihan definitions and selected character readings. Read the word to establish its pronunciation in context.
Readings in Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese
Readings recorded for 弦 in other language traditions. These are character-level records, not word translations or interchangeable pronunciations.
Japanese 日本語
Grouped by the source’s kana notation; no frequency ranking is implied.
On’yomi · katakana
Kun’yomi · hiragana
Katakana generally indicates on’yomi; hiragana generally indicates kun’yomi. The source does not identify everyday, rare, historical or name use per reading. Kana strings are preserved, including any written endings; consult a Japanese word entry for actual use.
Go deeperJisho ↗Wiktionary ↗
Korean 한국어
Hanja readings · Hangul
Source codes are separated below. They are neither sounds nor tones; a character reading alone does not specify a whole word’s pronunciation.
Go deeperNaver Hanja ↗Wiktionary ↗
Reading sources explained
- 현
- KS X 1001 (0) · Personal-name Hanja (N)
Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
Not recorded for this exact character in this dataset. This does not mean the language has no reading.
Form & structure
Writing & identity
- Unicode
- U+5F26
- Radical
- 弓 · 57
- Strokes
- 8 · Unihan
- Residual
- 5
Source record · Unihan 17.0. Individual senses and historical claims have not yet been reviewed by zimai.
Stroke order
8 strokesModern stroke order; regional conventions can differ. Stroke medians: Make Me a Hanzi via HanziLookupJS, drawn as an even pen line.
Graphical structure
How to read these symbols
⿰ left–right · ⿱ above–below · ⿻ overlap. Dotted boxes indicate positions, not missing characters. Each symbol describes the components that follow it; nested symbols describe a component in more detail. Source codes identify alternative analyses, not a writing sequence or an etymology.
BabelStone IDS · 2025-06-27. Region tags are preserved; 〾 marks approximation and {n} identifies an unencoded source component. These describe graphical structure, not historical derivation.
Words & connections
Words using 弦
Character connections
No reverse component match in this collection.
Component roles · attributed
- 玄 sound component · CJKVI analysis
Source analysis · 玄聲
Line 12489 · ⿰弓玄 · 玄聲 · source reference 4650010
Source analyses, kept separate from modern IDS. CJKVI labels are not individually verified historical conclusions. Evidence & limits ↗
History & distinctions
Related forms
No simplified/traditional variant property is retained for this record.
Historical readings
- Middle Chinese
- hen · 胡田 反切 · #581
Guangyun-based transcriptions · PHONO-ML · CC BY 4.0. These describe historical reading categories, not modern word pronunciation.
Source row & reading categories
CSV line 4716 · hen = 山開四平先匣
Automatically generated in the source dataset; the authors checked a subset and acknowledge possible errors. All source readings are retained separately. Notation & method ↗
Sources & reference
Evidence & next depth
Retained Unihan properties
- kMandarin
- xián
- kCantonese
- jin4
- kDefinition
- string; hypotenuse, crescent
- kTotalStrokes
- 8
- kRSUnicode
- 57.5
- kTGH
- 2013:1314
Readings across dictionaries
- Hanyu Da Zidian
- xián 20993.070
- Xiandai Hanyu · 1983
- xián 1247.010
- Tongyong Guifan · 2013
- xián 398.020
- Reading counts · XDHYPLCD
- xián(16)
- Mandarin / Cantonese · SMSZD
- xián粵jin4