chēn
noun #76,229

Meanings

  1. 1 precious stone; treasure

Examples

Shǐzhě cóng yuǎnfāng xiàn shàng zhēn chēn.
The envoys presented treasures from afar as tribute.
Tā de míngzi lǐ yǒu gè chēn zì, yìsi shì zhēnbǎo.
His given name has the character chēn, meaning a treasured gem.

Tips

culture
is a literary word for treasure or a precious gem, often a tribute item in old texts. Today it is mostly seen as an auspicious character in personal names.

Components

radical
wáng
jade radical (left form)
On the left this is the jade radical (the side form of , written like ). It places among words for gems and precious stones.
phonetic
shēn
to probe deep (here phonetic)
Right side is the phonetic element; the sound has shifted from shēn toward chēn, so read it as a sound hint rather than an exact match. It is the same kernel inside (deep).

Stroke Order

chēn