The Egyptian hieroglyph for "perfect, complete" (with the extended meanings of "good, pleasant, well, beautiful") in Gardiner's sign list is numbered F35; its phonetic value is nfr, with a reconstructed pronunciation of [nafir][2] and a conventional Egyptological vocalization of nefer.

The triliteral Egyptian hieroglyph F35 ('nfr') has sometimes been explained as a representation of a lute; however, Egyptologists today no longer consider this hypothesis likely.

The striations of the windpipe only appear in the hieroglyph following the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

[3] The term nfr has been incorporated into many names in Ancient Egypt.

Some scholars suggest that it was used in ancient Egyptian construction where 'nfrw' was used to denote 'level zero' of a building and in accounting where 'nfr' would refer to a zero balance.