素

Translingual

Han character

素 (Kangxi radical 120, 糸+4, 10 strokes, cangjie input 手一女戈火 (QMVIF), four-corner 5090₃, composition ⿱龶糸)

See also

• 責 青

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 918, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 27300
• Dae Jaweon: page 1348, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3368, character 3
• Unihan data for U+7D20

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		素

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 素
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (素) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
素	*saːs
傃	*saːs
嗉	*saːs
膆	*saːs
塐	*saːs

Pictogram (象形) – hands braiding thread 糸.

In modern form, top component looks like 生 without the diagonal stroke – compare 責, 青.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): sù (su⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄙㄨˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): sou³
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): su
• Northern Min (KCR): su̿
• Eastern Min (BUC): só
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): sò͘

  (Teochew, Peng'im): sou³

• Wu (Wugniu)
  • (Northern): ⁵su

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: sù
    • Zhuyin: ㄙㄨˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: sù
    • Wade–Giles: su⁴
    • Yale: sù
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: suh
    • Palladius: су (su)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /su⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: sou³
    • Yale: sou
    • Cantonese Pinyin: sou³
    • Guangdong Romanization: sou³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sou̯³³/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: su
    • Hakka Romanization System: su
    • Hagfa Pinyim: su⁴
    • Sinological IPA: /su⁵⁵/
• Northern Min
  • (Jian'ou)
    • Kienning Colloquial Romanized: su̿
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /su³³/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: só
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sou²¹³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sò͘
    • Tâi-lô: sòo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: sox
    • IPA (Xiamen): /sɔ²¹/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /sɔ⁴¹/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /sɔ²¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /sɔ¹¹/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /sɔ²¹/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: sou³
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: sòu
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sou²¹³/
• Wu
  • (Shanghai):
    • Wugniu: ⁵su
    • MiniDict: su^去
    • Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ²su
    • Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /su³⁴/

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• Dialectal data

Variety	Location	edit 素
Mandarin	Beijing	/su⁵¹/
	Harbin	/su⁵³/
	Tianjin	/su⁵³/
	Jinan	/su²¹/
	Qingdao	/su⁴²/
	Zhengzhou	/su³¹²/
	Xi'an	/su⁴⁴/
	Xining	/ɕy²¹³/
	Yinchuan	/su¹³/
	Lanzhou	/su¹³/
	Ürümqi	/su²¹³/
	Wuhan	/səu³⁵/
	Chengdu	/su¹³/
	Guiyang	/su²¹³/
	Kunming	/su²¹²/
	Nanjing	/su⁴⁴/
	Hefei	/su⁵³/
Jin	Taiyuan	/su⁴⁵/
	Pingyao	/səu³⁵/
	Hohhot	/su⁵⁵/
Wu	Shanghai	/su³⁵/
	Suzhou	/səu⁵¹³/
	Hangzhou	/su⁴⁴⁵/
	Wenzhou	/sɤu⁴²/
Hui	Shexian	/su³²⁴/
	Tunxi	/səu⁴²/
Xiang	Changsha	/səu⁵⁵/
	Xiangtan	/səɯ⁵⁵/
Gan	Nanchang	/su⁴⁵/
Hakka	Meixian	/sz̩⁵³/
	Taoyuan	/su⁵⁵/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/sou³³/
	Nanning	/ɬu³³/
	Hong Kong	/sou³³/
Min	Xiamen (Hokkien)	/sɔ²¹/
	Fuzhou (Eastern Min)	/sou²¹²/
	Jian'ou (Northern Min)	/su³³/
	Shantou (Teochew)	/su²¹³/
	Haikou (Hainanese)	/so³⁵/ /to³⁵/

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• Middle Chinese: suH

Rime
Character	素
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	心 (16)
Final (韻)	模 (23)
Tone (調)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	桑故切
Baxter	suH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/suoH/
Pan Wuyun	/suoH/
Shao Rongfen	/soH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/sɔH/
Li Rong	/soH/
Wang Li	/suH/
Bernard Karlgren	/suoH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	sù
Expected Cantonese Reflex	sou3

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[s]ˤak-s/

  (Zhengzhang): /*saːs/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	素
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	sù
Middle Chinese	‹ suH ›
Old Chinese	/*[s]ˁak-s/
English	white silk
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	素
Reading #	1/1
No.	12099
Phonetic component	素
Rime group	魚
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	訴
Old Chinese	/*saːs/

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 素

1. ^† white silk
2. ^† silk or paper used for writing
3. plain; white

   素面  ―  sùmiàn  ―  unadorned face; face without makeup

4. vegetarian (food)

   素菜  ―  sùcài  ―  vegetable dish; vegetarian dish

   吃素  ―  chīsù  ―  to live on a vegetarian diet; to be a vegetarian

   • 素食  ―  sùshí  ―  vegetarian foods; to maintain a vegetarian diet
5. formerly
6. normally
7. element

   元素  ―  yuánsù  ―  element

   因素  ―  yīnsù  ―  factor

8. (mathematics) prime

   素數／素数  ―  sùshù  ―  prime number

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Japanese

Kanji

素

(grade 5 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. basic

Readings

• Go-on: す (su, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: そ (so, Jōyō)
• Kun: きじ (kiji, 素); しろ (shiro, 素); しろい (shiroi, 素い); もと (moto, 素)

Compounds

• 生長素(せいちょうそ) (seichōso, “auxin”)
• 素(そ)馨(けい) (sokei, “Spanish jasmine”)

Derived terms

• 素(す)通(どお)り (sudōri)
• 素(す)泊(どま)り (sudomari), 素(す)泊(ど)まり (sudomari)

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Korean

Hanja

素 (eumhun 본디 소 (bondi so))

Hanja

素 (eumhun 흴 소 (huil so))

Compounds

• 素光 (소광, sogwang)
• 素人 (소인, soin)
• 素因數 (소인수, soinsu)
• 素因數分解 (소인수분해, soinsubunhae)
• 素因子 (소인자, soinja)
• 素一 (소일, soil)
• 素地 (소지, soji)
• 素定 (소정, sojeong)
• 素望 (소망, somang)
• 素朴 (소박, sobak)
• 素朴美 (소박미, sobakmi)
• 素朴性 (소박성, sobaksung)
• 素朴實在論 (소박실재론, sobakshiljeron)
• 素服 (소복, sobok)
• 素性 (소성, soseong)
• 素數 (소수, sosu)
• 素粒子 (소립자, solipja)
• 素粒子論 (소립자론, solipjalon)
• 素材 (소재, sojae)
• 元素 (원소, wonso)
• 水素 (수소, suso)

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Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 素 (tố, tó)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

• 生素 (sinh tố)