shēn
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to inquire; to ask about (archaic)
  2. 2 numerous; in great numbers (classical)

Examples

唐代孟诜食疗
Tángdài yī jiā Mèng Shēn zhù yǒu shíliáo míng zhù.
The Tang physician Meng Shen wrote a famous treatise on dietary therapy.

Tips

history
is not used independently in modern Chinese. It appears mainly in classical texts (the reduplicated 诜诜 meaning 'numerous') and as a personal-name character, such as the Tang dietitian 孟诜. It pairs the speech radical with the phonetic .
register
Archaic and literary only; today seen in classical quotations and old names rather than ordinary Chinese.

Components

radical
yán
speech; words
The left-side speech radical (the compressed form of ) marks this as a word about speaking — here, asking or inquiring.
phonetic
xiān
first; earlier
Supplies the sound; the reading shifted from xiān to shēn. It contributes no meaning, only the phonetic frame.

Stroke Order

shēn