Chinese character 越

越 usually means “cross over” or “surpass.” In Mandarin, it is pronounced yuè and also expresses increasing degree. Read the whole word: a name may instead refer to Yue or Vietnam.

Text symbol

What 越 means

The surrounding word decides which meaning you need. 越过 means “cross over,” 越界 means “cross a boundary,” and 超越 means “surpass.”

Names work differently: 越 names the ancient Chinese state of Yue; 越南 means Vietnam in Chinese. Japanese uses 越 in verbs such as 越える and 越す, with Japanese rather than Mandarin pronunciations.

越 gets its tone from the word it belongs to.

Do not translate every 越 as “more”: 越界 crosses a boundary.

Part of the collection

中

Common Chinese Characters (Hanzi)

Who writes 越

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Combination ideas

Mandarin pattern: the more A, the more B; A and B are placeholders.

Mandarin: increasingly; more and more over time.

Questions people ask

Why does 越 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.