佛 | Chinese Character for Buddha

佛 is the character for “buddha”. It is made out of 7 strokes.

Chinese Character	Simplified Version	Bopomofo	Pinyin
佛	佛	ㄈㄛˊ	Fó

Definition

Buddha; Buddhism

Historical Origins

The character 佛 is a phono-semantic compound, composed of the semantic component 亻 (a radical indicating “person”) and the phonetic component 弗. This character was used to represent the concept of Buddha, which was borrowed from the Sanskrit term बुद्ध (buddha), meaning “awakened” or “enlightened.” This borrowing occurred during the Han dynasty, a period when Buddhism was first introduced to China.

Vocabulary with the Character 佛

Chinese	Bopomofo	Pinyin	English
佛教	ㄈㄛˊ ㄐㄧㄠˋ	fójiào	Buddhism
佛祖	ㄈㄛˊ ㄗㄨˇ	fózǔ	Buddha; the founder of Buddhism
佛像	ㄈㄛˊ ㄒㄧㄤˋ	fóxiàng	Buddha statue; image of Buddha
佛學	ㄈㄛˊ ㄒㄩㄝˊ	fóxué	Buddhist studies
佛經	ㄈㄛˊ ㄐㄧㄥ	fójīng	Buddhist scriptures
佛堂	ㄈㄛˊ ㄊㄤˊ	fótáng	Buddhist hall or temple
佛光	ㄈㄛˊ ㄍㄨㄤ	fóguāng	Buddha’s light; radiance of Buddha
佛法	ㄈㄛˊ ㄈㄚˇ	fófǎ	Buddha’s teachings; Buddhist law