Trace Panda
■ radical

nán

hard

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 堇 represents the sound. The character is based on the original meaning "type of bird", which is unrelated to the modern meaning.

meaning

bird

sound

clay The pronunciation of 難 was similar to 堇 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

Appears in

Characters that use as a component, most common first.

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