What 茟 means
It names 藜, a plant, and is also recorded as a variant of 筆, meaning “brush.”
An entry in the Guangya, an early Chinese dictionary, from around 250 CE explains the plant name 茟 as 藜. Later lexicons also record 茟 as a variant of 筆, the character for a writing brush. These are separate documented uses; the surrounding text determines which one fits.
What does it mean when someone sends 茟?
Alone, it does not identify which recorded use is intended.
Check the surrounding words or ask whether the sender means the plant name 藜 or the 筆 variant. If they mean the everyday character for a writing brush, 筆 is the safer form.
Historical or institutional; in everyday writing, 茟 can look like a typo for 筆.
For the everyday word for a writing brush, use 筆 unless you are preserving a documented 茟 form.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
2Why does 茟 look different on my device?
Font support determines whether it appears. 茟 is drawn by the installed text font; if the font lacks it, the glyph may be missing or substituted, but the intended character remains 茟.
Why is 茟 on a Korean sign?
It is a preserved signboard form. As described by the Pilam Seowon association on 11 September 2026, the Korean Confucian school's signboard keeps 茟: a calligrapher used it in the school's name, although ordinary readers may expect 筆.
How to type 茟
茟\831FCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.