Han character 隩

It names a riverbank bend or land fit for settlement.

In classical Chinese, 隩 can mean the sheltered curve at a bank or land suitable for habitation. In 「四隩既宅」, the settlement sense is active; in 「厥民隩」, dictionaries connect it with 燠, “warm.” The phrase tells you which sense belongs.

The Shuowen Jiezi, a dictionary of Chinese characters, describes 隩 as a bend in a waterbank. Its analysis treats 阜 as the landform component and 奧 as the sound component. That is a written connection; neither component makes 隩 interchangeable with its own character.

Why does 隩 have several readings?

Its readings follow distinct senses and written borrowings.

Mandarin dictionaries give one reading for the riverbank and settled-land senses, and another for “deep” or “obscure.” Cantonese dictionaries also record more than one reading. The phrase and language both matter if you need to say it aloud.

For modern wording, use 奥/奧 for “inner” or “deep” and 澳 for “bay”; keep 隩 when preserving a classical source’s spelling. These forms are historically linked, but they are not interchangeable in every use.