Chinese Character Wiki
甚

shén, shèn

extremely

Original meaning: 

very peaceful and happy

Depicts putting something sweet in the mouth (甘) with a spoon. Based on the original meaning "very peaceful and happy". The meaning later shifted to "excessive" "extremely".

Components
甘 iconic component

甘  Iconic component

gān

  

sweetness

Depicts something sweet inside the mouth.

◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts a spoon.

Evolution

甚 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

甚  

shén

great extent; considerably; variant of 什[shén]

甚  

shèn

what; very; extremely; any

Most common words with 甚
Freq.
Word
Meaning

甚至

even

甚

what

甚至于

so much (that)

甚为

very

更有甚者

furthermore (idiom)

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

堪 湛

Sound component in 9 characters (1 verified)

尠 勘 斟 湛 諶 谌 戡 葚 椹

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[t.ɢ][ə]mʔ

dzyimX

shèn

excessive, very

*[t.ɢ][ə]mʔ-s

dzyimH

shèn

excessive


Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 58.4174% of movies

778th most common character in movies

626th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+751A

Shuowen

“甚，尤安樂也。从甘，从匹。耦也。，古文甚。”


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