Chinese character for snake: 蛇 (shé)

The Chinese character for snake is 蛇 (shé). It means snake and is the sixth animal of the Chinese zodiac. It appears in 蛇年 (shé nián, Year of the Snake) and 毒蛇 (dúshé, venomous snake).

How 蛇 is built

蛇 joins 虫 (chóng), the insect or creature radical, with 它 (tā). 它 was originally a picture of a snake itself, a creature with a large head, before it was borrowed to mean 'it'. The 虫 radical was then added to keep the snake meaning clear. As a memory aid, a creature 虫 called 'it' 它. 蛇 is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.

蛇 shé · snake

• 虫chóng — insect
  • 中zhōng — central
    • 口kǒu — mouth
    • 丨 — vertical stroke
• 它tā — it
  • 宀 — roof
    • 丶 — dot
    • 冖mì — cover
  • 匕bǐ — spoon
    • 乚 — hook stroke
    • 丿 — falling stroke

How 蛇 is used

Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 蛇 is identical in both scripts; in the zodiac, the snake stands for wisdom and grace.

Questions

Related

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• 马horse
• 鼠rat
• 智wisdom
• 猴monkey

Full page for 蛇 › All characters for words