Chinese Character Wiki
欠

qiàn

yawn, deficient

Pictograph of a person (人) opening their mouth to yawn.

Components
◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts an open mouth.

人 iconic component

人  Iconic component

rén

  

person

Evolution

欠 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
欠 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
欠 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
欠 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

欠  

qiàn

owe, lack, be deficient; KangXi radical number 76; deficient; to owe; to lack; yawn

Most common words with 欠
Freq.
Word
Meaning

欠

to owe

拖欠

in arrears

欠缺

lapse

欠款

to owe a debt

欠佳

suboptimal

Component uses

Meaning component in 22 characters (10 verified)

次 款 欧 歐 欲 吹 欣 欺 歉 欶 歎 歇 欤 歆 歙 欹 欷 歃 歔 欮 欻 歛

Sound component in 13 characters (3 verified)

飲 饮 㳄 欽 钦 砍 坎 嵌 炊 芡 欿 欻 肷

Iconic component in 6 characters (6 verified)

欢 歡 歌 飲 饮 㳄

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

软

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]ʰ(r)om-s

khjomH

qiàn

yawn


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 27.9833% of movies

1270th most common character in movies

1948th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+6B20

Shuowen

“欠，張口气悟也。象气从人上出之形。”


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