Chinese Character Wiki
蛇

shé

snake

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 它 represents the sound. Originally written as 它.

Components
虫 meaning component

虫  Meaning component

chóng

  

bug, insect

它 sound,iconic component

它  Sound Iconic component

tā

  

it

Pictograph of a snake.

Evolution

蛇 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
蛇 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
蛇 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

蛇  

shé

snake; serpent; CL:條|条[tiáo]

蛇 (虵) 

shé

variant of 蛇[shé]

Most common words with 蛇
Freq.
Word
Meaning

蛇

snake

毒蛇

viper

眼镜蛇

cobra

蛇头

head of a snake

蟒蛇

python

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*Cə.lAj

zyae

shé

snake

*laj

ye

yí

委蛇 compliant, complacent


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 10.1073% of movies

1625th most common character in movies

1689th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

11

Unicode

U+86C7

Shuowen

“它，虫也。从虫而長，象冤曲垂尾形。上古艸居患它，故相問無它乎。蛇，它或从虫。”


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