What 犀 means
It is the compatibility form of 犀, the Chinese character for “rhinoceros.”
The base character is read xī in Mandarin. Chinese compounds also use 犀 for “sturdy” or “sharp,” as in 犀舟 (“sturdy boat”) and 犀利 (“sharp”).
Why does 犀 have a separate code?
It preserves a legacy character-set identity during conversion.
犀 is a round-trip compatibility code for CNS 11643-1992, Taiwan’s national character encoding. Its CNS slot is 6-416A, so a document converted to Unicode and back can retain its source code. Text normalization—a software cleanup step for equivalent spellings—turns 犀 into 犀 in all four Unicode forms. Unicode also defines 犀︀ (犀 followed by variation selector UFE00) to preserve the distinction through normalization when software supports it.
How old is the character behind it?
The base graph is much older than its computer-era code.
An early attestation for 犀 appears on the Western Zhou bronze vessel Xibo Yufu Ding; later examples appear in Chu manuscripts and Qin bamboo slips. The Eastern Han dictionary Shuowen Jiezi describes an ox-like animal with one horn on its nose and another on its head. A Qing-era object in Taiwan’s National Palace Museum illustrates two historical uses of rhinoceros horn: medicinal preparations and hollowed cups.
Use 犀 for ordinary Chinese writing; 犀 belongs in legacy-data conversion or records that must retain its exact codepoint.
Normalization can turn 犀 into 犀 and erase the separate codepoint.
Who writes 犀
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Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1Why does 犀 show as a box?
Your font or app may not include this rare character. As of 2026, Taiwan’s CNS11643 portal says the default Windows fonts lack it and offers a downloadable font.
More like this
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How to type or find 犀
- Search it as
- rhino character · 犀牛 · cns 6-416a · 2f924
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
犀\2F924Why is 犀 a box on my screen?
fsymbols draws rare signs with its own fonts, so they show here even where your device has none. An app or website without such a font shows an empty box (□) or a question mark instead. Turn our fonts off to see each sign as your device draws it by itself: a box here means a box in your chats and documents too.
Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.