What 鑠 means
It means to melt or smelt metal. The early Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi defines it that way; later uses extend it to weakening or permeating, then to brightness or excellence.
A bell inscription was once read as 鑠; a 2009 study of ancient writing instead read it as 濁, so that reading remains disputed.
Literary and classical; easiest to recognize in set phrases.
Let the compound decide whether 鑠 means “melt” or “shine.”
Don't confuse it with
3Combination ideas
3Many voices can overpower truth or reputation.
Vigorous in old age.
Brilliance that impresses past and present.
Questions people ask
1Why does 鑠 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.
How to type 鑠
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 9460, then Alt+X to get 鑠.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “cjk unified ideograph-9460”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 9460, then Enter or Space.
HTML
鑠CSS
\9460Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
鑠
HTML hex
鑠
CSS content
content: "\9460";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E9%91%A0
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.