Chinese character for snow: 雪 (xuě)
The Chinese character for snow is 雪 (xuě). It means snow and appears in 下雪 (xià xuě, to snow) and 雪花 (xuěhuā, snowflake). It is also used for 'white as snow' and in names.
How 雪 is built
雪 has the rain radical 雨 on top and 彐 at the bottom. 彐 is a hand, and in older forms the bottom was 彗, a broom held in the hand. The classic explanation is that snow is the kind of rain you can sweep up with a broom. This makes 雪 an easy character to remember. It is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.
雪 xuě · snow
- 雨yǔ — rain
- 帀zā — to rotate
- 一 — horizontal stroke
- 巾jīn — cloth
- 帀zā — to rotate
- 彐jì — snout
- 二 — two strokes
- 一 — horizontal stroke
- 一 — horizontal stroke
- 二 — two strokes
Origin hint: 雨 gives the meaning, 彐 gives the sound. (from the Make Me a Hanzi dataset; treat as a memory aid where history is uncertain)
How 雪 is used
Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 雪 is identical in both scripts and is also a popular name character; 雪花 (snowflake) is a gentle two-character option.
Questions
What is the Chinese character for snow?
雪 (xuě) means “snow”.
How do you pronounce 雪?
雪 is pronounced xuě.