Chinese Character Wiki
新

xīn

new

Original meaning: 

firewood

Phonosemantic component. 辛 represents the sound, and 斤 (axe) and 木 (tree) represent the original meaning "firewood", now written as 薪. The meaning later shifted to "fresh" and "new".

Components
辛 sound component

辛  Sound component

xīn

  

laborious

木 iconic component

木  Iconic component

mù

  

tree

Depicts a tree being cut for firewood.

斤 iconic component

斤  Iconic component

jīn

  

axe

Depicts an axe cutting a tree for firewood.

Evolution

新 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
新 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
新 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
新 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
新 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

新  

xīn

new, recent, fresh, modern; new; newly; meso- (chemistry)

新  

Xīn

abbr. for Xinjiang 新疆[Xīn​jiāng] or Singapore 新加坡[Xīn​jiā​pō]; surname Xin

Most common words with 新
Freq.
Word
Meaning

新

new

重新

again

新闻

news

新华社

Xinhua News Agency

创新

innovation

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

薪

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*s.tsʰi[n]

sin

xīn

new


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 94.5699% of movies

230th most common character in movies

161st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

13

Unicode

U+65B0

Shuowen

“新，取木也。从斤，新聲。”


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