What 甚 means
The whole word decides what 甚 means. In Mandarin, 甚 can mark a high degree, as in 甚好 (“very good”); 甚至 means “even,” introducing a stronger or less expected case. In Chinese, 甚麼 and 什么 can form the question word “what,” where 甚 is not an intensifier.
When does 甚 sound formal?
Japanese 甚だ is formal written language. It is literary rather than casual conversation. 甚大 means very great in scale, 甚深 means profound or deep, and 甚だしい means extreme, excessive, or severe; the whole word determines whether that force is praise or criticism.
What do older forms tell us about 甚?
The character appears in several stages of Chinese writing. Its documented forms include bronze inscriptions, manuscripts from the ancient states of Chu and Qin, and later seal, clerical, and regular scripts.
The early Chinese dictionary 說文解字 connects the character's parts 甘 and 匹 with intense pleasure. Another reading of an early form sees a cooking pot above a stove. As of 2026-10-07, these remain competing explanations of the character's original image, not a settled picture of it.
Japanese 甚だ is formal or literary; in Chinese, the surrounding word shows whether 甚 intensifies, escalates, or asks a question.
In 甚麼, 甚 belongs to “what”; it does not mean “very.”
Who writes 甚
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Don't confuse it with
1甚麼 / 什么 Both can spell the Chinese question “what”; the first uses 甚, the second 什. Those characters are not interchangeable outside those word forms.
Related characters
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Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
2Can I send 甚 by itself?
There is no dependable reading without a surrounding word. If someone sends only 甚 and the conversation gives no clue, ask which phrase they mean before reading it as a reaction.
Why can 甚 look different in Japanese text?
As of 2026-10-07, Chinese and Japanese CJK fonts can follow different regional drawing conventions for 甚. The glyph may look different while the encoded character stays the same.
More like this
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Collections with 甚
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How to type or find 甚
- Search it as
- 甚 meaning · shen · shen4 · hanahada · hanahadashii · 甚好 · 甚麼 · 甚至
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
甚\751ACodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.