What 赠 means
It marks something as given or bestowed as a gift. In modern Chinese, 赠 appears in words for giving items away and offering farewell advice. By contrast, 送 is the broader verb “send” or “give”; 赠 stresses that something is given as a gift or benefit.
The Shuowen, an old Chinese character dictionary, glosses it as “玩好相送”—sending valued objects. In the character’s structure, 贝 points to valuables and 曾 supplies the sound. A historical-form chart also records a Chu-script form.
What changes when 赠 joins another word?
The next word tells you what is being bestowed. 赠送 names giving something as a gift; 赠言 is advice or a message for someone leaving; 追赠 is an official honor granted after death.
That meaning also shaped 赠序, a piece of writing associated with farewells. The tradition began in the Wei-Jin period, flourished in Tang, and continued through Qing. 赐 is a related verb for bestowing, usually from someone of higher rank; 赠 carries no fixed rank direction.
Neutral in modern compounds, but more formal and gift-focused than plain 送 in notices, ceremonial writing, and official language.
In 追赠 or 封赠, read an official honor granted after death, not an ordinary present.
Part of the collection
Who writes 赠
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Don't confuse it with
2
Related characters
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Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
1Why does 赠 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.
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How to type or find 赠
- Also called
- 贈
- Search it as
- zeng · zeng4 · zengsong · gift · give as a gift · free gift · 赠送 · 赠品
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
赠\8D60Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.