僧

Translingual

shinjitai	僧
simplified	僧
traditional	僧

Alternative forms

Note difference between Chinese form, which uses 曾, and Japanese shinjitai which uses 曽.

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 亻 (“person”) + phonetic 曾 – a kind of person (a Buddhist monk).

Japanese shinjitai form rather 亻 + 曽.

Han character

僧 (radical 9 人+12, 14 strokes, cangjie input 人金田日 (OCWA), four-corner 2826₆, composition ⿰亻曾)

1. Buddhist priest, monk
2. san of Sanskrit sangha

Related characters

• 增 (増) 憎

References

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

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Cantonese

Hanzi

僧 (Yale jang1, sang1)

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Japanese

Kanji

僧 (common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

• On: そう (sō)
• Kun: ぼうず (bōzu)

Compounds

僧衣 僧院 僧正 僧都 僧俗 僧服 僧兵 僧坊, 僧房 僧門 僧侶 僧庵

僧位 僧伽 僧家 僧形 僧綱 僧号 僧寺 僧職 僧籍 僧堂 僧尼 僧帽弁

学僧 小僧 高僧 禅僧 尼僧 仏法僧 売僧

Noun

僧 (hiragana そう, romaji sō)

1. a (Buddhist) priest, bonze

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Korean

Hanja

僧 (hangeul 승, revised seung, McCune-Reischauer sŭng)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

僧 (pinyin sēng (seng1), Wade-Giles seng¹)

Compounds

• 僧道
• 僧多粥少
• 僧侣
• 僧侣主义
• 僧尼
• 僧人
• 僧俗
• 僧徒
• 僧院
• 僧众

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Vietnamese

Han character

僧 (tăng)