What ⼈ means
Use a Unicode character picker and select ⼈ from the results. Search for “KANGXI RADICAL MAN” if the picker supports name lookup; confirm that you chose ⼈, not 人.
The graph behind both forms depicts a person in profile. A recognisable ancestor appears in late Shang oracle-bone inscriptions—writing on animal bones and turtle shells—and bronze inscriptions. The Kangxi dictionary later uses this graph in its radical index.
Why does ⼈ look like 人?
They share the human graph but serve different roles.
The ordinary 人 is the standalone character for a person. ⼈ is the radical entry form: Unicode groups it with 人 as a related form for text processing, but advises against substituting the radical sign for the ordinary character.
The Kangxi dictionary dates to the 18th century and grouped entries by radical, then narrowed them using remaining strokes; ⼈ is radical 9. The narrower 亻 is the left-side person component inside Chinese characters; is the corresponding left-side radical variant in Unicode’s radical repertoire.
Technical and lexicographic; it marks radical indexing, character analysis, or encoding.
Do not substitute ⼈ for 人 in ordinary Chinese text: one labels a radical, the other writes the word.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
2
Questions people ask
1Is ⼈ an emoji?
No. It is a text character drawn by the reader’s font.
More like this
11
How to type or find ⼈
- Also called
- radical 9 · man radical · 人部
- Search it as
- person radical · Kangxi radical · U+2F08 · 2F08 · human radical
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⼈\2F08Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.