柬

jiǎn
#3,041 most
frequent character
card, note, letter

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

柬 pairs 束 (to tie up) with 丷, a mark added to tell it apart from 束. It first meant 'to untie tied things to choose one.' That grew to 'choose, select,' then 'invitation,' and later 'letter, card.'

柬 as a component in other characters

sound3 characters
谏阑楝

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Same Characters, Different Readings

柬Jian3
abbr. for 柬埔寨[Jian3 pu3 zhai4], Cambodia

Homophones

HSK 5
捡jiǎn
to pick up, to collect, to gather
HSK 6
拣jiǎn
to choose, to pick, to sort out
减jiǎn
subtract, reduce, decrease, cut
剪jiǎn
cut, clip, trim, wipe out, scissors
简jiǎn
simple, uncomplicated, letter
检jiǎn
to check, to examine, to inspect

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