爫

shows a hand reaching down from above to grasp · Character component

shows a hand reaching down from above to grasp, take, or hold something

爫 is the squashed, flattened form of 爪, a picture of a hand with the fingers or claws pointing downward. Written across the top of a character it loses the vertical strokes: three short slanting strokes for the fingers and one longer stroke beneath for the wrist and palm, the whole hand tipped over to reach down at whatever sits below it. You can see it grabbing in 受 (a hand passing something down to another hand), 妥 (a hand settling on a woman), and 舀 (a hand dipping down into a mortar for grain). Because a claw and a grasping hand are the same shape here, characters like 爵 and 豸 keep the animal-claw reading instead.

爫 at a glance

Meaning

shows a hand reaching down from above to grasp

Strokes

4

Characters

25

Role

Contributes meaning

Characters with 爫 (18 of 25)

Frequently asked questions