眞 — Edit Snapshot — Chinese Character Wiki

zhēn

real

approved by Marcus Ngai · Mar 6, 2026, 01:09 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Mar 6, 2026, 01:09 AM

Im honestly very confused about the stroke order of 眞. Does the stroke order start off as 丿→ 乚 or 乚 → 丿?? Someone explain, please...

Original meaning: precious

Variant form of 真. Based on the original meaning "precious", now written as 珍. The meaning later shifted to "genuine" and "true".

Components

𠂈 Sound component

Based on an ancient variant of 殄.

Change in sound

眞 and 𠂈 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

貝 Meaning component

In ancient China, shells were considered precious and were used as currency.

丁 Sound component

Change in sound

眞 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Change in form

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

Regular Modern

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《說文》：“真，僊人變形而登天也。从，从目，从。八，所乘載也。，古文真。”