页 (yè) · page, leaf

Meanings

1 page
2 leaf

Characters

页

yè

page; leaf

Examples

HSK 1

这本书有两百页。

Zhè běn shū yǒu liǎngbǎi yè.

This book has two hundred pages.

HSK 4

这一页的内容很重要。

Zhè yí yè de nèiróng hěn zhòngyào.

The content on this page is very important.

HSK 5

请翻到第三页。

Qǐng fān dào dì-sān yè.

Please turn to page three.

Tips

history

The traditional character 頁 originally pictured a human head and was read xié in that older sense; the modern word for head, 头, later took over. 'Page' is a borrowed sense, and yè is the only living reading. As a radical it still tags head-and-face vocabulary: 额 (forehead), 颜 (face), 领 (neck).

Components

pictograph

页 yè

head; page

页 is a self-radical pictograph, originally a side-view drawing of a person with an emphasized head: the upper strokes mark the face and hair, the body below tapers into legs. It once meant 'head'; 'page' is a much later borrowed sense. As a radical it tags head and face vocabulary: 额, 颜, 顶, 颈.

Radical

Head Kangxi #181

Originally a pictograph of a human head with hair on top, only later borrowed to mean 'page'. Highly productive on the right side of phono-semantic compounds where it tags head-and-face vocabulary: 颜 (face), 领 (neck/collar), 额 (forehead), 顶 (top of head), 顾 (turn the head), 须 (beard).