階
jiē

stairs

Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 皆 represents the sound.

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜.

皆
皆 Sound component
jiē all

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkeajkˤrij steps, stairs

說文解字

《說文》：“階，陛也。从，皆聲。”

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)

阶 jiē stairs Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 介 represents the sound. Simplified form of 階.

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜.

介
介 Sound component
jiè to lie between

Sources

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