Dong Chinese dictionary

zhēn

real

Original meaning:

precious

Based on the original meaning "precious", now written as 珍. The meaning later shifted to "genuine" and "true".

Components

𠂈 Sound component

diān, tiǎn

to fall forwards

Based on an ancient variant of 殄.

真 and 𠂈 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.真 /*ti[n]/
𠂈 /*[d]ˤə[n]ʔ/

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠂈 than it was in ancient scripts.

貝 Meaning component

bèi

sea shell

In ancient China, shells were considered precious and were used as currency.

丁 Sound component

dīng

cubes

真 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.真 /*ti[n]/
丁 /*tˤeŋ/, /*tˤeŋ/, /*tˤreŋ/

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丁 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

真

zhēn

real, actual, true, genuine; really; truly; indeed; real; true; genuine

Most common words with 真

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	真	really
	真是	indeed
	真正	genuine
	认真	earnest
	真实	true

Component uses

Sound component in 14 characters (5 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

季旭昇《說文新證》p.643-644

漢語多功能字庫

Original meaning:

Freq.

Word

Meaning