冫
contributes the sense of ice · Kangxi radical 15 · variant of 冰
contributes the sense of ice, freezing and things that are cold
冫 comes from a simple drawing of ice: a couple of short angular marks standing for the cracks or pointed crystals that form when water freezes solid. The modern shape keeps just two of those marks — a dot above a short rising tick — stacked at the left of a character, and you can still read them as two splinters of ice. Because it looks like the three-stroke water element 氵 with one stroke missing, it is nicknamed "two-drops water," and this resemblance shows in 冰 ice, 冷 cold, 冻 to freeze, 凉 cool and 凄 bitterly cold. In a number of simplified characters 冫 is simply a reduced writing of some other part rather than real ice, as in 冲, 决, 净, 准, 冯 and 习.
冫 at a glance
- Meaning
- contributes the sense of ice
- Strokes
- 2
- Characters
- 32
- Role
- Contributes meaning
- Kangxi radical
- 15
- Variant of
- 冰
Characters with 冫 (28 of 32)
HSK 4 · 3
HSK 6 · 4
Frequently asked questions
What does the component 冫 mean?
冫 means "contributes the sense of ice". In the characters that contain it, it contributes meaning.
How many Chinese characters contain 冫?
32 characters in this dictionary contain 冫, including ones at HSK 1, HSK 2, HSK 3, HSK 4, HSK 5, HSK 6.
Is 冫 a radical?
Yes — 冫 is Kangxi radical 15, one of the 214 traditional indexing radicals used to organise Chinese dictionaries.
How many strokes does 冫 have?
冫 is written in 2 strokes.