How to Write 玢 (bīn) — Meaning “porphyrite; jade texture”

Imagine a "king" (王) holding a "divided" (分) piece of rare jade. The king splits the jade in two, revealing a beautiful porphyrite pattern inside. This connects the jade radical and the phonetic component to the meaning of jade-like rock.

Pay attention to the left radical 王: its bottom horizontal stroke should be slightly longer than the top two, and it narrows a bit to the right. The right part 分 has a downward slash (丿) that starts above the middle of the left part; do not make the top 八 too wide or the knife (刀) too small.

玢 (bīn) means porphyrite or jade texture, while 玎 (dīng) means the sound of jade hitting something—like a tinkling noise—and 玑 (jī) refers to a pearl that is not quite round or a star name. Visually, 玢 uses 分, 玎 uses 丁, and 玑 uses 几, so the right-side component is the key difference.

玢 is not common in daily conversation; it appears mainly in geological terms like 玢岩 (bīn yán, porphyrite) and in transliterated foreign names such as 赛玢 (Sài bīn, Sabin). It is also used as a rare given name character, like 玢玢 (Bīn bīn), where it adds a refined, jade-related meaning.

Common words containing 玢 include: 玢岩 (bīn yán) — porphyrite (rock type); 玢玢 (bīn bīn) — Binbin (a name); 赛玢 (sài bīn) — Sabin (a foreign name).