What 竦 means
It can mean reverence, fear, or drawing yourself up.
The Han-era Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary presented in 121 CE, defines 竦 as respect. Its analysis links 立 (“stand”) to the meaning and 束 to the sound: 束 is a pronunciation clue, not a second meaning to add.
Classical Chinese references also give meanings such as tiptoeing, craning the neck, standing tall, rousing the spirit, and holding something. Japanese uses the character in 竦む (“freeze up in fear”) and 竦然 (“horrified”); those Japanese words cover a narrower range.
How do I type 竦?
In Mandarin pinyin, type song, then select 竦.
竦 is pronounced sǒng in Mandarin, with the third tone. Pinyin offers same-sound candidates such as 悚, 聳/耸, and 慫/怂, but their meanings differ, so choose the character that belongs in your word.
Cangjie input uses 卜廿木中 (YTDL). For Japanese spelling, enter すくむ for 竦む or しょうぜん for 竦然.
Formal written vocabulary; by itself, 竦 leaves the intended sense open.
A lone 竦 does not say whether the writer means respect, fear, or standing tall.
Don't confuse it with
3Questions people ask
1Why does 竦 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 竦
竦\7AE6Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.