Chinese Character Wiki
乳

rǔ

breast, milk

Depicts a mother holding (爪) a child (子) breastfeeding it.

Components
爪 iconic component

爪  Iconic component

zhǎo, zhuǎ

  

hand, claw

Depicts a hand.

子 iconic component

子  Iconic component

zi, zǐ

  

child

◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts a mother breastfeeding.

Evolution

乳 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
乳 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
乳 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
乳 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

乳  

rǔ

breast, nipples; milk, suckle; breast; milk

Most common words with 乳
Freq.
Word
Meaning

乳

breast

乳房

breast

乳头

nipple

乳酪

cheese

乳腺癌

breast cancer

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*noʔ

nyuX

rǔ

milk; nipple


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 13.7274% of movies

1656th most common character in movies

1831st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Unicode

U+4E73

Shuowen

“乳，人及鳥生子曰乳，獸曰產。从孚，从乙。乙者，玄鳥也。《明堂》、《月令》：‘玄鳥至之日，祠于高禖以請子。’故乳从乙。請子必以乙至之日者，乙春分來，秋分去，開生之候鳥，帝少昊司分之官也。”


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