贞 zhēn chaste

Made up of [贝 bèi shell; precious; cowrie shell radical 154, 卜 bǔ divination; prophesy radical 25]
Made with 6 strokes.

The radical 'shell' suggests something intact and enclosed. Derivation may be from reading the future with a ritual vessel

Ancient small seal form Small seal

Related characters


Also uses 贝 bèi component: 厕 cè (toilet) 贵 guì (precious) ; 贫 pín (poor) ; 赏 shǎng (to hand down) ; 贴 tiē (to stick) ; 员 yuán (person) ; 则 zé (conjunction used to express contrast with a previous sentence or clause)
Also uses 卜 bǔ component: 处 chù (place) 咎 jiù (fault) ; 外 wài (outside) ; 占 zhān (to observe) ; 桌 zhuō (table)

Sounds same

真 zhēn (really)

Different tone

震 zhèn (Thunder) ; 震 zhèn

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