Chinese Characters Starting with "C start"

Every character has an origin. Discover the pictographs, myths, and history behind each Chinese character — with pinyin, stroke order, HSK level, and audio pronunciation.

This 'resign' character began as a kneeling person

cún

This character looks like ‘foot + ritual vessel’

cǎi

This character looks like a foot + 'to gather' —

chèn

This character’s 12 strokes hide a millennia-old

cái

This 'money' character hides a battle-axe atop cow

chù

Its horn radical (角) reveals the truth: 触 isn’t

cái

This 'cutting' character began as a tailor’s knif

chóng

This six-stroke character began as a wriggling wor

chòu

Originally meant 'scent' — neutral and even poeti

cháng

This 7-stroke character began as a wiggly pictogra

cuì

A ‘flesh’ radical + ‘sudden end’ symbol — thi

chì

This 'wing' character hides a secret: its right si

chóu

Its right side 周 means 'surround' — a visual met

chún

Born from unbroken silk thread and sprouting seeds

cāo

This 'rough' character hides rice grains in its bo

chèn

Born from ancient grain scales, this character doe

chǎo

This fiery 8-stroke character began as 'roasting b

cháo

This character began as an ancient astronomical re

Born from an ancient scribe measuring water depth

chōng

This 'ice radical' character (冫) doesn’t mean co

chén

Its right side looks like 'now' (今), but this cha

chí

Originally a fortified moat on bronze inscriptions

chái

Originally a bronze-age drawing of bound logs atop

cūn

Though it means 'village,' 村 was invented late in

cháo

Born as a sunrise ritual scene, 朝 fused time, dir

céng

Born as a steaming ancestral rice pot, this charac

cāo

This 'grasp' character evolved from ancient battle

chā

Originally a pictograph of a hand driving a tool *

cuò

Born from a hand arranging dried meat on a rack,

cǎi

This 'color' character doesn’t depict pigment —

chāi

Its right side is 折 ('to break'), its left is 扌

chāo

This 'copy' character hides a secret: its right si

chéng

This 'hand-holding-up' character once depicted a r

cán

This ‘ashamed’ character hides a heart being cho

chóu

This ‘worry’ character literally bears autumn’s

chè

This 'thorough' character began as a pictograph of

chě

This 'ruler' character abandoned measurement 1,200

chǒng

This character began as a royal seal of favor — a

chén

This 'dust' character hides a double dose of 'smal

chuī

This 7-stroke character began as a pictograph of a