剑
jiàn HSK6

sword

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 佥 represents the sound. Simplified form of 劍.

Components

佥
佥 Sound component
qiān together
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Sources

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

劍 jiàn sword Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 僉 represents the sound.

Components

僉
僉 Sound component
together
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjaemHs.kr[a]m-s sword

說文解字

《說文》：“劒，人所帶兵也。从刃，僉聲。劍，籀文劒从刀。”

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)