飛

contributes the sense of flying · Kangxi radical 183

contributes the sense of flying, soaring, or moving swiftly through the air

飛 began as a picture of a bird lifting off, its neck stretched upward and its wings and tail feathers spread out. In the modern shape you can still read the small hooked stroke at the top as the head and neck, the vertical core as the body, and the two matching feathered flourishes on either side as the beating wings. The simplified form 飞 keeps just one of those wings. Because the whole graph is already a picture of flight, it mostly stands alone as a word rather than serving as a building block in other characters.

飛 at a glance

Meaning

contributes the sense of flying

Strokes

9

Kangxi radical

183

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