聰
cōng

clever, wise

Phonosemantic compound. 耳 represents the meaning and 悤 represents the sound. Originally written as 悤.

Components

耳
耳 Meaning component
ěr ear
悤
悤 SoundMeaning component
cōng agitated

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttshuwngs-l̥ˤoŋ hear well; intelligent

說文解字

《說文》:“聰,察也。从耳,怱聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

聪 cōng clever, wise Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 耳 represents the meaning and 总 represents the sound. Simplified form of 聰.

Components

耳
耳 Meaning component
ěr ear
总
总 Sound component
zǒng collect

Sources

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