In Buddhism, 淨 symbolizes not only physical cleanliness but also spiritual purity.
Terms like 淨化 (정화) mean “to purify,” used in both religious and secular contexts.

water

 (수) – semantic element, indicating connection to water and the concept of washing/cleansing;


to contend, struggle, quarrel, to compete, vie for, to argue, dispute

 (쟁) – phonetic element, providing the sound 정.

Over time, it expanded to mean clean, pure, and spiritually undefiled—a key concept in Buddhist vocabulary like 淨土 (Pure Land).

It is widely used in religious and literary contexts, especially in Buddhism, where it appears in words like:
極樂淨土 (극락정토) – the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss;
西方淨土 (서방정토) – the Western Pure Land (Amitabha’s paradise).

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

wave, surf, flow, to drift

sea, ocean

to soak, to sit in water (or liquid)

name of the Jing River, to flow, to pass through

to disappear, to vanish, to reduce, to eliminate

to cross (a river or body of water), to step through, to wade through

to spring forth, to gush, to well up, to surge

liquid, fluid, juice

clean, pure, clear

to sink, to fall into, to be submerged

excessive, overindulgent, licentious, lustful, unrestrained, corrupt

deep, profound

clear, pure, clean, fresh

to add, to increase, to supplement

to lessen, to reduce, to subtract

to cross, to ferry, to carry across, to pass through, to overcome

whirlpool, vortex, swirl, eddy

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Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

Chinese characters (Hanja)

Chinese characters dictionary

淨

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Words that derived from 淨

Additional notes

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References