■ radical

xiàng

towards

How it’s built

Depicts a mouth (口) in a closed space (宀) making an echo sound. Based on the original meaning "echo; sound", now written as 響. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

宀

iconic

roof

口

iconic

mouth

Through the ages

Seal script

Appears in

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

响xiǎngto make noise 晌shǎngnoon 饷xiǎngrations and pay for soldiers 餉xiǎngrations and pay for soldiers