Chinese character 鑽

Use pinyin, Zhuyin, or Cangjie, then select 鑽.

In a Mandarin pinyin IME, enter zuān; Zhuyin uses ㄗㄨㄢ, and Cangjie uses 金竹山金. Dictionaries also record zuǎn and zuàn, so typing a whole word helps an IME choose the reading; 鑽孔 means “drill a hole.” Your font draws the selected character’s displayed glyph.

What does 鑽 mean?

It means to drill, bore, pierce, or push through.

The physical sense extends to entering a gap or probing a subject. Chinese compounds use 鑽研 for deep study, 鑽牛角尖 for fixating on a futile problem, and 鑽石 for diamond. In Japanese, dictionaries give the reading サン and a native reading きり for a drill; 研鑽 means deep study.

The Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese character dictionary, records 鑽 in the old small-seal script and defines it as a tool for piercing. It analyzes 金 as the metal element and 贊 as the sound element. Old texts also use 鑽 for drilling to make fire.

Is 鑽 the same as 钻?

Yes. 钻 is its simplified Chinese form.

鑚 is a recorded variant form. Use 钻 in simplified Chinese text and 鑽 in traditional Chinese text; 鑚 is an alternate written form, not a separate meaning.