Chinese character 嘡

It writes the clang, not the object.

In Chinese, 嘡 is an onomatopoeia—a written sound effect—for the resonant hit of a bell, gong, or other metal. The 口 part signals a sound-related word, while 堂 supplies the sound reading. One 嘡 marks an impact; repeating it makes the ringing recur.

The earliest attestation traced so far, as of 2026, is in the transmitted Dadai Liji, a classical Chinese ritual text, where 嘡 appears in a legal phrase about weapons, wood, and stones. Ming and Qing writing uses it for gongs and clangs. Shuowen, an early Chinese character dictionary, defines the related sound-word 鼞 as a drum sound. Both characters use 堂 as the sound-bearing part, but they are not interchangeable.

How do you type 嘡?

Enter tāng in a Chinese Pinyin input method, then select 嘡.

This pronunciation has many homophones, so 嘡 can be hard to find. If it is missing, try handwriting input or look it up by its components or strokes, if your input method supports those options.

Is 嘡 the same as 镗?

They overlap as sound spellings, but are not always interchangeable.

Some dictionaries list 镗 as an alternate spelling for 嘡's clang sense. But 镗 also names a machining operation, so use 嘡 for the sound effect and read 镗 in older or variant text by context.