What 钻 means
It means piercing, then extends from that action. 钻孔 is drilling a hole; 钻进 is entering through a gap. 钻研 means deep study; 钻营 means disapproved maneuvering for personal gain.
The Eastern Han dictionary Shuowen Jiezi defines 鑽 as a tool for piercing. Later classical records use it for piercing tortoise shells to seek omens, entering things, and diamond.
Why does 钻 have two pronunciations?
The compound determines the Mandarin reading. Pinyin marks zuān with a high, level tone and zuàn with a falling tone. The first appears in action compounds such as 钻进 and 钻营; the second names tools and gemstones, as in 电钻 and 钻戒.
Tool and drilling compounds are neutral; 钻营 is disapproving.
钻营 suggests underhanded pursuit of personal gain.
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Who writes 钻
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Related characters
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Questions people ask
1Why does 钻 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 钻
- Search it as
- zuan · zuān · zuàn · diamond · drill bit
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
钻\94BBCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.