■ radical

xū

to need

How it’s built

Originally was a pictograph of a person standing under the rain (雨), representing the meaning "to get wet", now written as 濡. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The person component was later replaced with the phonetic component 而. Due to historical phonetic shifts, 需 and 而 no longer sound similar.

雨

iconic

rain

而

sound

and; but; yet — The pronunciation of 需 was similar to 而 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

Through the ages

Bronze script

Seal script

Appears in

Characters that use 需 as a component, most common first.

儒rúConfucian scholar 懦nuòweak 蠕rúwasp 孺rúchild 嚅rúto mumble 糯nuòglutinous rice

Browse all characters →