三 — Chinese character
三
sān
three
- Pinyin
- sān
- Radical
- 1 ⼀ (One)
- Strokes
- 3
- Components
- 一 二
- Formation
- ideographic — Three parallel lines; compare 一 (one) and 二 (two)
- Japanese
- 三 as a kanji
Common words with 三
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 三星 | sān xīng | three major stars of the Three Stars 参宿 (Shēn xiù) Chinese constellation; the belt of Orion |
| 三次 | sān cì | third; three times |
| 三级 (三級) | sān jí | grade 3; third class |
| 十三 | shí sān | thirteen; 13 |
| 三分 | sān fēn | somewhat; to some degree |
| 第三方 | dì sān fāng | third party |
| 三十 | sān shí | thirty; 30 |
| 三角 | sān jiǎo | triangle; (math.) trigonometry (abbr. for 三角学 (sān jiǎo xué)) |
| 三分之一 | sān fēn zhī yī | one third |
| 三条 (三條) | sān tiáo | three of a kind (poker) |
| 三项 (三項) | sān xiàng | three items; three events |
| 三角洲 | sān jiǎo zhōu | delta (geography) |
English words written with 三
三 in the Chinese classics
Occurrences: Tao Te Ching 11 · Analects 70 · Art of War 24 · I Ching 23 · Mencius 67 · Zhuangzi 116 · Doctrine of the Mean 8
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 11
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 14
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 19
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 42
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 50
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 62
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 67
- Analects 1.4
Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.