矽藻
xī​zǎo

diatom

矽 xī, xì silicon

Components

石
石 Meaning component
shí stone

stone

夕
夕 Sound component
xī evening

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

藻 zǎo splendid

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 澡 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

澡
澡 Sound component
zǎo wash

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsawX[ts]ˤawʔkind of water plant
Zhengzhangʔsaːwʔ
Unicodetzɑ̌u

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica