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髟

biāo
kangxi_radical

Meanings

  1. 1 long flowing hair (descriptive, archaic)
  2. 2 hair radical (Kangxi #190); semantic component for hair-related characters

Tips

usage
髟 is rarely written on its own in modern Chinese — it lives almost entirely as a top component on hair-related characters: 髮 (hair, simplified 发), 鬓 (sideburns), 鬃 (mane), 鬍 (beard, simplified 胡), 鬃 (horse mane), 髻 (topknot). When you see it stacked above another part, expect a hair-and-grooming meaning.
history
The graph shows 长 (long) on top of 彡 (three diagonal strokes representing flowing strands). Originally an adjective for long hair drooping or trailing — hence its choice as the 'hair' indexing radical in the Kangxi Dictionary, even though the simpler 髟 itself almost never surfaces in everyday text.

Radical

Hair Kangxi #190

The hair-and-grooming radical. Productive cluster of compounds about scalp hair, beards, manes, and styling: 髮 (hair), 鬓 (temples / sideburns), 鬃 (mane), 髭 (mustache), 髻 (topknot), 鬚 (beard), 鬓 (temple hair). Always sits on top of the character, with 长 + 彡 conveying long, flowing strands.

Used in

View all 9 →
Showing 6 of 9 · default form 髟
鬓 bìn
temples · hair on the temples
鬣 liè
mane (of a horse, lion etc.) · bristles
髯 rán
cheek whiskers; sideburns; long beard · (by extension) a man with a fine beard; a bearded one
髭 zī
moustache; hair on the upper lip
髻 jì
hair bun; topknot; coiled hair fastened on the head
鬃 zōng
the mane (of a horse, lion, etc.) · bristles (of a pig)

Stroke Order

髟 biāo