辩
biàn HSK4

dispute

Simplified form of 辯. Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 辡 represents the sound.

Components

讠
讠 Meaning component
yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

辡
辡 Sound component
biàn criminals accusing one another

辡 also serves as a meaning component.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

辯 biàn dispute Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 辡 represents the sound.

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
辡
辡 SoundMeaning component
biàn criminals accusing one another

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjenX[b]renʔ distinguish, dispute (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“辯，治也。从言在辡之間。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)