僧

僧 U+FA31, 僧 CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-FA31 ← 侮 CJK Compatibility Ideographs 免 →

僧 U+2F80A, 僧 CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-2F80A ← 備 CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement 像 →

Translingual

Alternative forms

Note difference between Chinese form, which uses 曾, and Japanese shinjitai which uses 曽. Both forms are encoded under the same codepoint due to Han unification.

Han character

僧 (Kangxi radical 9, 人+12 in Chinese, 人+11 in Japanese, 14 strokes in Chinese, 13 strokes in Japanese, cangjie input 人金田日 (OCWA), four-corner 2826₆, composition ⿰亻曾 (GTKV) or ⿰亻曽 (J))

Derived characters

• 𫣸

Related characters

• 增 (増), 憎

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 117, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1076
• Dae Jaweon: page 248, character 20
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 222, character 1
• Unihan data for U+50E7

• Unihan data for U+FA31

• Unihan data for U+2F80A

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 僧
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts
Small seal script s05925 Transcribed ancient scripts L11518 L11519
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sɯːŋ) : semantic 亻 (“person”) + phonetic 曾 (OC *ʔsɯːŋ, *zɯːŋ) – a kind of person (a Buddhist monk).

Etymology

Clipping of 僧伽 (MC song gja, “sangha; community of monks, nuns, novices and laity”); see there for more.

Pronunciation

Definitions

僧

1. (Buddhism) monk; bonze
2. (Buddhism) sangha
3. (Church of the East, historical) priest
4. a surname

Synonyms

Compounds

References

• “僧”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Shinjitai	僧
Kyūjitai	僧 僧 or 僧+︀?
	僧󠄁 僧+󠄁? (Adobe-Japan1)
	僧󠄅 僧+󠄅? (Hanyo-Denshi) (Moji_Joho)
The displayed kanji may be different from the image due to your environment. See here for details.

Glyph origin

Japanese shinjitai form: 僧 (曾 → 曽).

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 僧)

1. Buddhist priest
2. monk

Readings

• Go-on: そう (sō, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: そう (sō, Jōyō)
• Kun: ぼうず (bōzu, 僧)

Compounds

Etymology

Clipping of 僧伽 (sōgya), borrowed from Sanskrit संघ (saṃgha).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) そ​ー (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

僧(そう) • (sō) 

1. a (Buddhist) priest, bonze

References

Korean

Etymology

From Middle Chinese 僧 (MC song).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

僧

Wikisource

僧 (eumhun 중 승 (jung seung))

1. Hanja form^? of 승 (“a Buddhist monk”).

Compounds

References

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

Vietnamese

Han character

僧: Hán Việt readings: tăng (蘇(tô)增(tăng)切(thiết))

1. (Buddhism) priest, bonze