文

wén
#148 most
frequent character
language, culture, writing, formal

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

文 shows a human body with tattoo-like markings, so it first meant 'body with markings'. The meaning grew to 'mark' (now 纹), then 'writing', 'literature', and 'culture'.

Drawn as: body with markings

文 as a component in other characters

meaning7 characters
empty2 characters

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