Pictographic in origin:
Early forms show the image of a person wearing a belt with a hole at the center for the sword handle, suggesting “the middle” or “central point.”
From the sense of being at the center, it developed into the meaning “middle, central.”
It is also the phonetic source for 殃 (“calamity, misfortune”), reflecting the ancient belief that carrying a sword at the waist could bring trouble.

央 (앙) — center, middle
中央 (중앙) — the center, central
央求 (앙구) — to plead, to beg earnestly
央告 (앙고) — to request, to petition

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

long life, longevity, lifespan

outside, surface, exterior

many, a lot of

dream

sky, heaven

large, great, big, excessive

man, husband

to divide, to cut apart

center, middle

to lose, to miss, to make a mistake

strange, unusual, uncanny, occult

to report, to petition, to present or offer respectfully

to make a bond, to contract, to carve

good, favorable, pleasant, to like, to be fond of

pregnancy, conception

subtle, exquisite, wonderful, marvelous

to envy, to be jealous

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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

央

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Words that derived from 央

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References