源

yuán
#669 most
frequent character
root, source, origin

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

源 combines 氵 water with 原, which shows spring water flowing from a basin. The first sense was 'source of a river'. 氵 was added later to make that meaning clearer. From there it grew to 'source, origin' and 'cause, reason'.

Drawn as: spring water leaving basin

Ask DeepSeek

Homophones

HSK 2
圆yuán
circle, round, circular, spherical
HSK 4
元yuán
first, primary, basic
员yuán
a person engaged in some field of activity (waiter
原yuán
primary, original, former, raw
园yuán
garden, an area of land for growing plants
缘yuán
cause, reason, karma, fate

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.