guǎn

pipe

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and represents the sound. Originally a musical tube made of bamboo. The meaning "to manage" is a phonetic loan.

Components
⺮ meaning component

  Meaning component

zhú

  

bamboo

⺮ is a component form of .

官 sound component

  Sound component

guān

  

official

Evolution

管 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
管 Clerical script Wu (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Clerical script

Wu (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)
管 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

guǎn

pipe, tube, duct; woodwind music; to take care (of); to control; to manage; to be in charge of; to look after; to run; to care about; tube; pipe; woodwind; classifier for tube-shaped objects; particle similar to [bǎ] in ... constructions; writing brush; (coll.) to; towards

 

Guǎn

surname Guan

() 

guǎn

variant of [guǎn]

Most common words with 管
Freq.
Word
Meaning

管理

to supervise

to control

不管

regardless of

尽管

despite

主管

in charge

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]ˤo[n]ʔ

kwanX

guǎn

tube; flute

*kʷˤa[n]ʔ

kwanX

guǎn

exhausted, helpless

*kʷˤa[n]ʔ

kwanX

guǎn

helpless


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 93.7049% of movies

270th most common character in movies

252nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

14

Unicode

U+7BA1

Shuowen

“管,如箎,六孔,十二月之音,物開地牙,故謂之管。从竹,官聲。琯,古者玉琯以玉。舜之時,西王母來獻其白琯。前零陵文學姓奚,於伶道舜祠下得笙玉琯。夫以玉作音,故神人以和,鳳皇來儀也。从玉,官聲。”


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