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Are there any characters in Chinese that have the same radicals in their formation, but the position of those radicals result in different meanings.

e.g. A character made up of two radicals, AB, and another BA, that is also a valid character.

Traditional or Simplified is fine.

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  • 2
    I wrote an article about this last year. Some of the content overlaps with the answers already given here: hackingchinese.com/…
    – Olle Linge
    Apr 4, 2017 at 18:03

3 Answers 3

16

Same meaning:

崕 = 崖 (ㄧㄚˊ / yá) = cliff; precipice

峰 = 峯 (ㄈㄥ / fēng) = peak; summit

毗 = 毘 (ㄆㄧˊ / pí) = to adjoin; to border on

群 = 羣 (ㄑㄩㄣˊ / qún) = group; crowd

飃 = 飄 (ㄆㄧㄠ / piāo) = to float

鄰 = 隣 (ㄌㄧㄣˊ / lín) = neighbor; adjacent

Different meanings:

早 (ㄗㄠˇ / zǎo) = early; morning
旪 (ㄒㄧㄝˊ / xié) = 協 = agreement

吟 (ㄧㄣˊ / yín) = to chant; to recite
含 (ㄏㄢˊ / hán) = to contain; to keep in mouth

旱 (ㄏㄢˋ / hàn) = drought; dry
旰 (ㄍㄢˋ / gàn) = 傍晚 = sunset; dusk

岳 (ㄩㄝˋ/ yuè) = mountain; peak
岴 (ㄑㄩ/ qū) = 嶇 = rugged; rough

星 (ㄒㄧㄥ / xīng) = star
甠 (ㄑㄧㄥˊ / qíng) = 晴 = clear (weather)

啻 (ㄔˋ / chì) = only
啼 (ㄊㄧˊ / tí) = cry; crow

There are many many others.

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  • I'm actually going to mark this one as the accepted answer because I want to use the "same meaning" ones for the thing I'm working on. Mar 31, 2017 at 5:13
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if you're looking for "difference positions of radicals / components" with the same meaning, here're some more:

慚 (u+615a), 慙 (u+6159)

幕 (u+5e55), 幙 (u+5e59)

炮 (u+70ae), 炰 (u+70b0)

in modern usage, the first character would be considered as "the correct" one, while the second character is variant (異體字).

but, in literatures of yore, it's the opposite. that, 慙, 幙 & 炰 are used more.

edited, 4 more samples:

裡 (u+88e1), 裏 (u+88cf)

稿 (u+7a3f), 稾 (u+7a3e)

慼 (u+617c), 慽 (u+617d)

屻 (u+5c7b), 岃 (u+5c83)

have fun :)

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  • 谢谢你 ........... Apr 1, 2017 at 21:03
  • u re welcome :) do u ve enough samples for yr works now? Apr 2, 2017 at 5:10
  • Yeah! Between all the answers I'm all set :) Apr 2, 2017 at 23:20
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If you can accept A = B:

if A != B:

杏 呆

部 陪

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  • Aren't the radicals in your third example actually two different ones? Nov 18, 2022 at 9:34

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