What 赭 means
It means ochre, red earth, or reddish brown.
Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary dated to 121 CE, defines 赭 as red earth: 赤 carries the meaning “red,” and 者 the sound. Upper Cave burial evidence dates ochre use to 38,500–35,800 years ago. A 2025 study compares related funerary use in southern China and Southeast Asia.
赭石 names ochre stone, used for pigment or dye; 赭色 names the color. In later imperial China, 赭衣 meant convict clothing, 赭黄 an imperial color, and 赭面 ritual face paint.
A literary word for red earth and ochre, with material and historical associations.
赭衣 means convict clothing; applying it to an outfit can evoke a prison uniform.
Who writes 赭
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Related characters
2
Questions people ask
1Why does 赭 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 赭
- Search it as
- 赭 meaning · 赭石 · 赭色 · 赭衣 · 赭黄 · 赭面
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
赭\8D6DCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.