華
huáHuàhuāHuá

magnificent

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approved by Peter Olson · Mar 2, 2026, 04:50 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Mar 2, 2026, 04:50 AM

fixed strokes for traditional variant

Changed fields: strokeCountSimp, fragmentsTrad

Original meaning: flower

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 𠌶 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flower", now written as 花. The meaning later shifted to "blossoming", "flourishing" and "magnificent".

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

𠌶
𠌶 SoundMeaning component
huā flower

Pictograph of a fully bloomed flower.

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

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwaeqʷʰˤra flower (n.)
hwaeN-qʷʰˤra flower (v.); flowery (adj.)
hwaeH[ɢ]ʷˤra-s [name of a mountain]

說文解字

榮也。从艸从𠌶。凡華之屬皆从華。

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.554-555
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)