What ⾯ means
⾯ is a dictionary symbol for the face radical. 面 is the ordinary Chinese character for “face” or “surface.”
Oracle-bone inscriptions—early writing carved on bones and turtle shells—include a form sometimes read as an ancestor of 面; that reading remains disputed as of 2026. Later forms extended “face” to “front” or “facing surface.”
The 214-radical arrangement dates to 1615 and entered the Kangxi Dictionary in 1716. In that system, find a character under its radical, then count the remaining strokes.
Technical and dictionary-focused.
Alone, ⾯ points to a dictionary index.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ⾯ 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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11
How to type or find ⾯
- Search it as
- face radical · radical 176 · 部首 · mian
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⾯\2FAFKANGXI RADICAL FACE.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.