橡 (xiàng): oak (tree)

Meanings

1 oak (tree)
2 Quercus serrata

Characters

橡

xiàng

oak

Examples

橡树是一种非常坚硬的树木。

Xiàngshù shì yī zhǒng fēicháng jiānyìng de shùmù.

The oak tree is a very hard type of wood.

地上掉了很多橡子。

Dìshàng diào le hěnduō xiàng zi.

A lot of acorns have fallen on the ground.

Tips

mistakes

Don't confuse 橡 (xiàng, oak) with 橡胶 (xiàngjiāo, rubber) and 橡皮 (xiàngpí, eraser). Despite sharing the character, rubber comes from a different tree (rubber tree, 橡胶树). 橡子 (xiàngzi) means acorn.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left wood radical — pictograph of a tree with branches and roots. The indexing radical: 橡 names the oak, an actual tree, so wood is the natural anchor. Same family: 松 pine, 柏 cypress, 桦 birch, 楓 maple — single-character tree species all share this radical.

phonetic

象 xiàng

elephant; shape

Right 象 supplies the sound xiàng with no shift — a clean phonetic. 象 itself is a pictograph of an elephant (head, trunk, body, legs). Modern 橡 also names the rubber tree, since latex was tapped from a tree thought to resemble the oak — hence 橡胶 rubber, 橡皮 eraser.