蝙
biān

bat

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 扁 represents the sound.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
扁
扁 Sound component
biǎn flat

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpeːn
Unicodeben

說文解字

蝙蝠也。从虫扁聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)