Chinese Triple Radicals Tells You a Lot About the Culture that Created Them

If one radical means X, three radicals should mean 3X, so studying triple radicals, even if some are archaic, tells you a lot about the culture that created them. Especially when three women mean “adultery” and three sons mean “weakness.”

Triple Radical	Triple Radical Definition	Pronunciation	Single Radical	Single Radical Definition
三	three	san1	一	one
巛	river	chuan1, kun1	ㄑ	seemingly the first stroke of “woman”
众	multitude, crowd; masses, public	zhong4	人	man
森	forest, dense, dark	sen1	木	tree
犇	run fast, rush about, flee	ben1	牛	bull
姦	adultery (wicked)	jian1	女	woman
孨	weakness	zhuan3	子	son
尛	(same as 麼) interrogative final particle; insignificant, small, tiny	me0, mo0, mo3, ma0	小	small
驫骉	running herd	biao1	馬, 马	horse
焱	flames	biao1, yan4	火	fire sign
猋	whirlwind	biao1	犬	dog
淼	flood, infinity	miao3	水	water sign
垚	embankment	yao2	土	earth
晶	crystal	jing1	日	sun
皛	intuition, bright	jiong3	白	twinkle of eyes when cognition causes one to open them in Eureka moment?
灥	a group of springs	xun2	泉	white water
瞐	beautiful eyes, deep eyes, head depth	mao4, mo4	目	eye
贔	strong, anger, preference	bi4	貝	cowrie shell
赑	strong	bi4	贝	the simplified form of cowrie shell
聶	whisper	nie4	耳	ear
喦	talkative	nie4	口	mouth (and mountain?)
舙	(same as 咠) to whisper; to blame to slander	hua4	舌	tongues, clappers of bells; not used
嚞	(same as 哲) wise, sagacious; wise man, sage	zhe3, zhe2	吉	吉 = “Lucky, propitious, good”
品	conduct; grade; thing; product; good	pin3	口	orifice
厽	private, secret, fortress	lei1	厶	cocoon or perhaps vagina; 㕕=(ancient form of 幻) deception; sleight of hand; magic
畾	fields divided by dikes	lei2	田	cultivated field
磊	lumpy, rock pile, uneven, big-hearted	lei3	石	stone, pebble
刕	to cut; a surname	li2	刀	knife
劦	cooperate; combined labor (variant of U+5354 協: be united; cooperate)	xie2	力	force
芔	general term for plants, myriads	hui3, hui4	屮	sprout
鑫	rich, thriving,	xin1	金	gold ore
馫	intensifier	xin1	香	fragrant
蟲	insect	chong2	虫	insect
矗	upright, lofty	chu4	直	㒹 = to turn over, upside down
彡	hair	shan1	丿	strand
羴	rank odor of sheep or goats	shan1	羊	sheep
毳	fine hair or fur on animals	cui4	毛	tail
掱	pickpocket	shou3	手	hand
鱻	fresh, new delicious, rare, few	ba4, xian1	魚	goldfish
麤	coarse, rough, rude	cu1	鹿	deer
惢	to be puzzled, worried, to be good	rui3, suo3	心	heart
叒	obedient, united	li4, ruo4	又	right hand
轟	explosion, bang, boom	hong1	車	car/cart/wheel
龘	the appearance of the dragon walking	ta4	龍	six over moon (or flesh) next to dragon
雥	flock?	za2	隹	bird
䆐	(ancient form of 國) a country; a nation; a kingdom; a state	guo2	秦	feudal state of Qin; the Qin dynasty
雦	(semantic variant of 集: assemble, collect together)	ji2	隹	bird
靐	thunder?	bing4	雷	thunder
飝	Variant form of “飛”	fei1	飛	fly; go quickly; dart; high
飍	appearance of startled flight	biao1,xiu1	風	wind; air; manners, atmosphere