Read Edit View history Discussion 约 yuēyāo HSK3 agreement Origin Definitions Defs Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents ← Back to history approved by Peter Olson · Apr 26, 2021, 06:18 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Apr 26, 2021, 06:18 PM old pronunciation Changed fields: components, historicalPronunciations Original meaning: bind Simplified form of 約. Phonosemantic compound. 纟 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bind". The meaning later shifted to "agreement", "restrain", "keep under control", "appointment", and "approximately". Components 纟 纟 Meaning component 纟 is a component form of 糸. 勺 勺 Sound component Change in sound 约 and 勺 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese. Historical Pronunciations Sources Character origin 漢語多功能字庫Readings & variants Unicode