美轮美奂
měi​lún​měi​huàn

magnificent

美 měi beautiful

Pictograph of a person with ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

Components

羊
羊 Iconic component
yáng sheep

Depicts ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

大
大 Iconic component
dà, dài big

Used here as a pictograph of a person.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

镁鎂

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

羹

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmijX[m]rəjʔ beautiful

說文解字

《說文》：“美，甘也。从羊，从大。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

轮 lún wheel Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 车 represents the meaning and 仑 represents the sound. Simplified form of 輪.

Components

车
车 Meaning component
chē cart, vehicle
仑
仑 Sound component
lún, lùn logical reasons

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

奂 huàn be numerous Simplified

Original meaning: take from someone's house

Simplified form of 奐. Depicts two hands (廾) taking something from a person's (人) house (穴). Based on the original meaning "take from someone's house". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.
穴
穴 Iconic component
xué, jué cave
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 穴 than it was in ancient scripts.
廾
廾 Iconic component
gǒng two hands
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 廾 than it was in ancient scripts.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

换唤焕痪涣

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

輪 lún wheel Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 車 represents the meaning and 侖 represents the sound.

Components

車
車 Meaning component
chē cart, vehicle
侖
侖 Sound component
arrange

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlwin[r]u[n] wheel

說文解字

《說文》：“輪，有輻曰輪，無輻曰輇。从車，侖聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

奐 be numerous Traditional

Original meaning: take from someone's house

Depicts two hands (廾) taking something from a person's (人) house (穴). Based on the original meaning "take from someone's house". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.
穴
穴 Iconic component
xué, jué cave
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 穴 than it was in ancient scripts.
廾
廾 Iconic component
gǒng two hands

Modern form looks like unrelated 大.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 廾 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

喚渙煥換瘓

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqʰʷaːns

說文解字

《說文》：“奐，取奐也，一曰大也。从廾，敻省。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)