zhēn
noun #57,474

Meanings

  1. 1 (literary) an auspicious omen; good fortune

Examples

Gǔrén bǎ xǐquè kànzuò jíxiáng de zhēn zhào.
The ancients saw the magpie as an auspicious sign of good fortune.

Tips

history
is not used alone in modern Chinese. It meant an auspicious omen in classical texts and survives chiefly in the compound (a lucky portent) and in personal names.
register
Literary and onomastic; everyday Chinese uses 吉祥 or 祥瑞.

Components

radical
shì
altar; spirit; ritual
is the spirit / altar radical, a left-side form of , connecting the word to omens, blessings and the divine.
phonetic
zhēn
chaste; to divine
supplies the sound zhēn exactly; its old divination sense also harmonizes with the omen meaning.

Stroke Order

zhēn