Chinese Character Wiki
威

wēi

power

Depicts a weapon (戌) used to force a woman (女) into submission.

Components
戌 iconic component

戌  Iconic component

xū, qu

  

11th terrestrial branch

Depicts an axe.

女 iconic component

女  Iconic component

nǚ, rǔ

  

woman

Evolution

威 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
威 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
威 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
威 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

威  

wēi

pomp, power; powerful; dominate; power; might; prestige

Most common words with 威
Freq.
Word
Meaning

威胁

to threaten

威

power

权威

authority

威力

might

威士忌

whiskey (loanword)

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

崴 葳

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ʔuj

'jw+j

wēi

awe-inspiring


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 53.7882% of movies

596th most common character in movies

622nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+5A01

Shuowen

“威，姑也。从女，从戌。《漢律》曰：‘婦告威姑。’”


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons License