A number of

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...

are simplified-traditional multipairings (), which do not have a one-to-one mapping between their simplified and

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

forms. This is usually because the simplification process merged two or more distinct characters into one. In most cases, these traditional characters are

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...

s, having the same pronunciation but different meanings. As a result, converting text from simplified to traditional characters is difficult to automate, especially in the case of common characters such as ⇄ (behind, empress), ⇄ (table, clock), ⇄ (traitor, rape) and more. In a smaller number of cases, a single traditional character is mapped to multiple simplified characters as the character is only simplified in one of its usages. The following is an exhaustive list of all characters whose simplified and traditional forms do not map in a one-to-one manner. Simplified characters are marked with a background, and traditional characters with .

1 to 2

1 to 3

1 to 4

2 to 1

Special cases

* , : * , : ''níng'' (

limonene Limonene is a colorless liquid aliphatic hydrocarbon classified as a cyclic monoterpene, and is the major component in the oil of citrus fruit peels. The -isomer, occurring more commonly in nature as the fragrance of oranges, is a flavoring a ...

) is simplified to which is the traditional character for ''zhù'' (

boehmeria ''Boehmeria'' is a genus of 47 species of flowering plants in the nettle family Urticaceae. Of the species, 33 are indigenous to the Old World and 14 to the New World; no species is indigenous to both the Old and New Worlds. The species include ...

) that in turn is simplified to . * , : ''shèn'' (extremely, exceed) and ''shí'' (ten, various) are the same in both simplified and traditional, while ''shén'' (what) is written in traditional and in simplified (and also as a variant in traditional). * , : ''zhǐ'' ( a musical note) and ''zhēng'' (journey, campaign) are the same in both simplified and traditional. However, another ''zhēng'' (punish, seek, characteristic, levy) is written in traditional and in simplified. * , : A similar, but not entirely comparable situation is and , both pronounced ''huǒ''. The literary meaning "many, much" is written in both sets, and the meaning "meals" is written in both sets, but the meaning "partner, group, combine" generally prefers for traditional and for simplified, although as there is some overlap with the other meanings, the character choice is less strict. * , :

References

{{Reflist
現代漢語常用簡繁一對多字義辨析表 (Identification chart for common Simplified Chinese characters with multiple Traditional equivalents)
- 韻典網 ytenx.org

External links

Simplified to Traditional Chinese Conversion Table
Chinese language Homonymy in Chinese Simplified Chinese characters