Chinese Characters Starting with "ALL"

Every character has an origin. Discover the pictographs, myths, and history behind each Chinese character — with pinyin, stroke order, HSK level, and audio pronunciation.

杉

shān

Though it looks like 'wood + decoration,' 杉 isn't

杇

wū

This character began as a Bronze Age trowel-in-han

杅

yú

This 'bowl' character hasn’t been spoken aloud in

朿

cì

This 3,200-year-old pictograph shows a tree sprout

朾

tíng

This 'bump' character hides in plain sight: 木 +

朳

bā

This 'tree' is actually a wooden rake — its shape

朱

zhū

Originally a ritual symbol for sacred cinnabar pig

札

zhá

This 5-stroke character began as a pictograph of a

朣

tóng

This rare, poetic character captures *only* the fr

朠

yīng

A 12-stroke character that looks like ‘moon + flo

朘

juān

A 'flesh-shrinking' character born from ancient bo

朕

zhèn

Once a humble ‘I,’ 朕 was hijacked by China’s f

朔

shuò

Originally a bronze-age pictograph of the invisibl

朓

tiǎo

This rare, poetic character encodes ancient China

朏

fěi

This elegant, obsolete character names the exact m

朊

ruǎn

A 20th-century scientific neologism forged from 'f

朆

fēn

This 'character' doesn’t exist in dictionaries —

朅

qiè

This rare, literary 'departure' character looks li

朁

cǎn

This 12-stroke relic looks like a mouth (曰) holdi

曼

màn

Though pronounced màn like 'slow' and 'overflow',

曹

cáo

This character began as a Bronze Age tally of dual

曷

hé

This 'why' isn’t casual — it’s a bronze-age int

曳

yè

Its six strokes visually reenact dragging: a face

曰

yuē

This 'mouth' character doesn’t talk casually—it

曩

nǎng

This 21-stroke time-word looks like a sun shining

曦

xī

This 20-stroke ‘sunlight’ character isn’t drawn

曜

yào

This 'bright' character isn't an adjective — it's

曛

xūn

This 18-stroke character fuses 'sun' and 'smoke' t

曚

méng

This 18-stroke character fuses 'sun' and 'veil' to

曙

shǔ

This 17-stroke 'dawn' character hides a phonetic t

曘

rú

This 'sun-color' character 曘 (rú) is so rare it

曌

zhào

This character was invented by China’s only femal

曈

tóng

This character fuses 'sun' and 'child' — not to m

昙

tán

This character hides an upside-down sun beneath cl

晔

yè

Though it looks like 'sun + flower,' 晔 isn't abou

曀

yì

A rare, vivid character whose very strokes depict

暾

tūn

A 16-stroke literary gem meaning 'sun at the horiz

暻

jǐng

This 'bright' character doesn’t depict sunlight—

暹

xiān

This 'sunrise' character vanished from everyday sp

暸

liáo

This 'bright' character isn't about light bulbs—i