What 釮 means
Its source determines whether it means sharpness or one-quarter.
Later Chinese dictionaries give 釮 the gloss 利, meaning “sharp” or “keen.” Taiwan’s Ministry of Education Variant Dictionary says the early Chinese dictionary 《說文》 does not record 釮 and cites 《四聲篇海》 for this gloss.
A practical multiplication table from the ancient state of Chu, 《算表》, uses 釮 as a one-quarter marker. The table is dated around 305 BCE. Scholars interpret 釮 there as 錙; other Chu measurement texts use 才 for the same quarter value. This is an attested use, not a date for the character’s origin.
Someone sent me 釮—what does it mean?
A bare message does not settle which sense is meant.
If it arrives alone, ask for the surrounding sentence or source. A modern Chinese dictionary citation points to “sharp” or “keen”; a quotation from the Chu calculation table points to one quarter.
Japanese kanji references also classify 釮 as uncommon; a Chinese reading does not establish its Japanese pronunciation. Do not guess its pronunciation from the left-hand metal component 金 or the right-hand component 才.
Its strongest context is specialist reference work: Chinese lexicons, historical-text study, and old calculation tables.
Do not settle on “sharp” from the bare glyph; the Chu table uses it for one quarter.
Who writes 釮
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readings“Sharp” or “keen,” the later dictionary gloss.
Related characters
2
Questions people ask
1Why does 釮 look different in different fonts?
Fonts supply the shapes used to display Han characters, so 釮 can vary with the font environment. As of 2024, Taiwan’s CNS11643 record lists default glyphs in Windows 10 and later.
More like this
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How to type or find 釮
- Search it as
- qí · qi · sharp · keen · quarter · fraction · 錙 · 锱
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
釮\91EECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.