性

Translingual

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 忄 (“heart”) + phonetic 生 – nature, personal quality, hence of the heart.

Han character

性 (radical 61 心+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 心竹手一 (PHQM), four-corner 9501₀)

1. nature, character
2. sex, gender

References

• KangXi: page 381, character 24
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10478
• Dae Jaweon: page 710, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2286, character 4
• Unihan data for U+6027

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Cantonese

Hanzi

性 (Yale sing3)

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Japanese

Noun

性 (hiragana せい, romaji sei)

1. sex, gender
2. (grammar) gender

Synonyms

• 性別 (せいべつ, seibetsu)

性 (hiragana さが, romaji saga)

• one's nature
• characteristic

Synonyms

• 本能 (ほんのう, hon'nō)

Suffix

性 (hiragana せい, romaji -sei)

1. -ity, -ness, the nature of quality or something

性 (hiragana しょう, romaji -shō)

1. nature of something

Kanji

性 (grade 5 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. one's nature
2. characteristic
3. sex, gender
4. content

Readings

• Goon: しょう (shō)
• Kan’on: せい (sei)
• Kun: さが (saga), なりくせ (narikuse)
• Nanori: なり (nari), もと (moto)

Compounds

性交 性分 性善説 男性

性急 性悪説 性情 中性

性格 性癖 性能 悪性

性行 性質 女性

References

• Shift JIS: 90AB
• JIS: 402D

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Korean

Hanja

性 (hangeul 성, revised seong, McCune-Reischauer sŏng, Yale seng)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

性 (pinyin xìng (xing4), Wade-Giles hsing⁴)

Compounds

• 可及性
• 性交

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Vietnamese

Han character

性 (tính, dính, tánh)