Character 婉

婉 describes gentleness, grace, compliance, or tactful indirectness.

The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese character dictionary, glosses 婉 as “compliant.” Its written form pairs a meaning clue, 女, with a sound clue, 宛.

The neighboring word selects the sense: 委婉 and 婉转 describe tactful, indirect wording; 婉丽 and 婉容 describe refined beauty or manner; 婉顺 describes gentle compliance. A bare 婉 rarely has one English gloss that fits every use.

Why does 婉 read differently in Chinese and Japanese?

Chinese and Japanese use different readings and compounds.

In Mandarin, 婉 is pronounced wǎn, written in Pinyin with a dipping tone. Japanese dictionaries give エン (approximately “en”) as a reading, along with native readings meaning “beautiful” and “to comply.” In Japanese, 婉曲 describes roundabout wording, while 婉容 describes a gentle, composed manner.

Can 婉 look different in different fonts?

Yes; a different stroke design can still be 婉.

A typeface or device may draw the same character with different strokes. Compare the whole form; a stroke variation alone does not give it a different meaning.