There are different ways of structuring Chinese characters. However, a structure with three equal components is one of the most common ones. Many Chinese characters follow this of structure. The meaning of these characters is usually quite literal and overall very simple, yet there’s such a beauty in this simplicity. 森(sēn)is one of them. So, our word of this week is森 – ‘forest.’ 

Pronunciation

森 is pronounced sēn.

Meaning

The character森(sēn) was first seen in Oracle bone script in the Shang Dynasty. Its meaning was forest.

Without knowing what 森(sēn)means or how it’s pronounced, a beginner could figure out the definition just by seeing that it’s made up of three of the character 木 (mù), the character for “wood” or “tree”. Three’s a forest or wooded, after all.

Example

森林(sēn lín)

Meaning: forest-木 (mù) meaning “wood” appears five times in this term.

戒备森严(jiè bèi sēn yán)

Meaning: heavily-guarded.

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