芡

芡 U+82A1, 芡 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-82A1 ← 芠 [U+82A0] CJK Unified Ideographs 芢 → [U+82A2]

Translingual

Han character

芡 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+4, 10 strokes, cangjie input 廿弓人 (TNO), four-corner 4480₂, composition ⿱艹欠)

Derived characters

• 𡞁, 𥟕

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1019, character 21
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30705
• Dae Jaweon: page 1477, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3183, character 9
• Unihan data for U+82A1

Chinese

trad.		芡
simp. #		芡

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 芡 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• Euryale ferox (English)

Glyph origin

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

	Old Chinese
坎	*kʰoːmʔ, *kʰoːms
扻	*kʰoːmʔ
砍	*kʰoːmʔ
芡	*ɡromʔ
欠	*kʰoms
杴	*qʰom
鍁	*qʰam

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *ɡromʔ): semantic 艹 (“grass”) + phonetic 欠 (OC *kʰoms).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): qiàn (qian⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄑㄧㄢˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): him³ / hin³
• Eastern Min (BUC): kiêng
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): khiàm / khiàn

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: qiàn
    • Zhuyin: ㄑㄧㄢˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: ciàn
    • Wade–Giles: chʻien⁴
    • Yale: chyàn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: chiann
    • Palladius: цянь (cjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕʰi̯ɛn⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: him³ / hin³
    • Yale: him / hin
    • Cantonese Pinyin: him³ / hin³
    • Guangdong Romanization: him³ / hin³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /hiːm³³/, /hiːn³³/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: kiêng
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /kʰiɛŋ²⁴²/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: khiàm
    • Tâi-lô: khiàm
    • Phofsit Daibuun: qiaxm
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /kʰiam⁴¹/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Kaohsiung): /kʰiam²¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /kʰiam¹¹/
  • (Hokkien: General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: khiàn
    • Tâi-lô: khiàn
    • Phofsit Daibuun: qiexn
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /kʰiɛn²¹/
    • IPA (Taipei): /kʰiɛn¹¹/

---

• Middle Chinese: gjemX

Rime
Character	芡
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	群 (30)
Final (韻)	鹽 (154)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	巨險切
Baxter	gjemX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ɡˠiᴇmX/
Pan Wuyun	/ɡᵚiɛmX/
Shao Rongfen	/ɡiæmX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/gjiamX/
Li Rong	/ɡjɛmX/
Wang Li	/ɡĭɛmX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/gi̯ɛmX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	jiàn
Expected Cantonese Reflex	gim6

• Old Chinese

  (Zhengzhang): /*ɡromʔ/

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	芡
Reading #	1/1
No.	10273
Phonetic component	欠
Rime group	談
Rime subdivision	3
Corresponding MC rime	儉
Old Chinese	/*ɡromʔ/

Definitions

芡

1. Euryale ferox, a plant allied to the water lily
2. cornstarch (with water)
3. (Eastern Min) to thicken a soup by means of starch
4. (Southern Min) tempering (spices)

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 勾芡 (“to thicken a soup by means of starch”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		勾芡
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	勾芡兒, 勾芡
	Taiwan	勾芡
Jilu Mandarin	Tianjin	勾滷兒
	Jinan	勾芡
Central Plains Mandarin	Luoyang	勾芡
	Wanrong	勾芡
	Xining	勾芡
Lanyin Mandarin	Ürümqi	勾芡
Southwestern Mandarin	Chengdu	勾芡, 淋芡
	Guiyang	勾芡
	Liuzhou	打芡
Cantonese	Guangzhou	打芡
	Hong Kong	打芡
	Taishan	打河
	Dongguan	打芡
Hakka	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	牽粉
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	牽漿
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	芡
Southern Min	Xiamen	牽滷, 拍滷, 牽羹, 譴滷, 徛滷
	Quanzhou	譴滷, 寄滷, 兜羹
	Zhangzhou	牽滷, 拍滷, 譴滷, 徛滷, 兜粉
	Kaohsiung	牽粉
	Yilan	牽羹
	Changhua (Lukang)	牽羹
	Taichung	牽粉
	Taichung (Wuqi)	牽羹
	Tainan	牽羹
	Taitung	牽粉
	Hsinchu	牽羹
	Penghu (Magong)	牽粉
	Singapore (Hokkien)	牽滷, 拍滷, 譴滷
	Bangkok (Teochew)	拍滷
Southern Pinghua	Nanning (Tingzi)	打芡, 打滷子
Wu	Shanghai	著膩
	Suzhou	著膩
	Ningbo	鑽漿

Compounds

• 勾芡 (gōuqiàn)
• 打芡
• 淋芡
• 粉芡
• 芡實 / 芡实 (qiànshí)
• 芡粉 (qiànfěn)

References

• “芡”, 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–
• “芡”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

Japanese

Kanji

See also:

Category:Japanese terms spelled with 芡

芡

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. prickly waterlily (Euryale ferox)

Readings

• Go-on: げん (gen)^{←げん (gen, historical)←げむ (gemu, ancient)}
• Kan-on: けん (ken)^{←けん (ken, historical)←けむ (kemu, ancient)}

Etymology

Kanji in this term
芡
みずぶき Hyōgai
irregular

For pronunciation and definitions of 芡 – see the following entry: 水蕗

(The following entry does not have a page created for it yet: 水蕗.)

Korean

Hanja

芡 • (geom) (hangeul 검, revised geom, McCune–Reischauer kŏm, Yale kem)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

芡 (khiếm)

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