Chinese Character Wiki
寶

bǎo

treasure

Depicts an assortment of valuable things, including jade (玉) and shells (貝), being stored safely under a roof (宀). The 缶 component represents the sound.

Components
宀 iconic component

宀  Iconic component

mián

  

roof

𤣩 iconic component

𤣩  Iconic component

yù

  

jade

𤣩 is a component form of 玉.

缶 sound component

缶  Sound component

fǒu

  

pottery

貝 iconic component

貝  Iconic component

bèi

  

sea shell

In ancient China shells were used as currency.

Evolution

寶 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
寶 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
寶 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
寶 Clerical script Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Clerical script

Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)
寶 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

宝 (寶) 

bǎo

treasure, jewel; precious, rare; jewel; gem; treasure; precious

Most common words with 寶
Freq.
Word
Meaning

宝贝

treasure

宝

jewel

宝宝

darling

珠宝

pearls

宝贵

valuable

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*pˤuʔ

pawX

bǎo

precious thing


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 67.4355% of movies

373rd most common character in movies

811th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

20

Simplified

宝

Unicode

U+5BF6

Shuowen

“寶，珍也。从宀，从王，从貝，缶聲。寚，古文寶省貝。”


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