相

xiàng
#152 most
frequent character
appearance, portrait, picture

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

相 shows an eye 目 closely watching a tree 木, so it first meant 'to observe, to see'. From that came 'to compare' and 'mutual' for xiāng. Read xiàng, it also means 'image' and 'government minister'; the sense 'to help' was borrowed for its sound alone.

Drawn as: eye watching a tree

相 as a component in other characters

sound7 characters
想箱湘厢霜缃葙

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Same Characters, Different Readings

相Xiang1
surname Xiang
相xiāng
each other, one another, mutually

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