涩

澀
sè
#2,830 most
frequent character
astringent, tart, acerbity, unsmooth

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

涩 has 氵 water as its meaning part and a part meaning not able to walk that also gives the sound. It first meant not smooth, with a lot of friction. That grew to rough, to astringent or tart, and then to difficult to understand.

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Same Characters, Different Readings

涩sè
old variant of 澀|涩[se4]

Homophones

色sè
colour, look, expression, scene
瑟sè
a type of standing harp, smaller than konghou 箜篌, with 5-25 strings
塞sè
to stop up, to stuff, to cope with

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