xuǎn

choose

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
辶 meaning component

  Meaning component

chuò

  

walk

is a component form of .

巽 sound component

  Sound component

xùn

  

obedient

Evolution

選 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
選 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

xuǎn

choose, select; elect; election; to choose; to pick; to select; to elect

Most common words with 選
Freq.
Word
Meaning

选择

to select

to choose

选手

athlete

选举

to elect

竞选

to run for office

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[s]o[n]ʔ

sjwenX

xuǎn

choose; count

*[s]o[r]ʔ

sjwenX

xuǎn

count (v.)

*[s]o[n]ʔ-s

sjwenH

xuàn

even, orderly


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 78.5199% of movies

300th most common character in movies

499th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

15

Simplified

Unicode

U+9078

Shuowen

“選,遣也。从辵、巽。巽遣之,巽亦聲。一曰選擇也。”


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