The traditional form of the character is shown in large type at the top left. When the simplified character officially used in mainland China (traditional forms are officially restricted in mainland China but are increasingly popular) is different, it is shown to the right in brackets.

Character pronunciation follows the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system used in mainland China. All common pronunciations, including alternative pronunciations or pronunciations used only in Taiwan or mainland China, are listed on the first line.

Brief, one-sentence etymologies begin on the second line. As discussed in the introduction, these are traditional Chinese etymologies, many of which are not supported by current evidence. Traditional Chinese classifications of characters into six forms based on their etymology are not explicitly stated but can be inferred from the etymologies by interested readers. As discussed in the introduction, such classifications are often arbitrary. If the ancient definition which is consistent with the etymology is not currently used then this definition is included with the etymology after an "ancient" usage restriction.

Multi-character words using the character are treated differently depending on whether the character is the initial character. If the character is non-initial, the word is "reverse-referenced" under its initial character in a list following a bidirectional arrow symbol. If the character is initial, the pronunciation and definitions are given following the word. As with the character definitions, different definitions are separated by bracketed parts of speech indicators.

At the very bottom, page references to some major sources on character etymology are given. Other sources were also consulted, so the given etymology may not correspond to the etymologies in the listed sources.