钠

鈉
nà
#3,473 most
frequent character
sodium (chemistry)

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

钠 joins 钅 metal with 内 nèi, whose sound starts the same. Metal points to working iron, so it first meant 'to forge iron'. The chemical sense 'sodium' was borrowed later for the sound alone.

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Homophones

HSK 1
那nà
that, those, then (in that case)
娜nà
(phonetic na)
纳nà
to receive, to accept, to enjoy

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