Chinese Character Wiki
來

lái

come

Original meaning: 

wheat

Pictograph of wheat. The current meaning "come" is a phonetic loan. The original meaning "wheat" is now written as 麥.

Evolution

來 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
來 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
來 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

来 (來) 

lái

come, coming; return, returning; to come; to arrive; to come round; ever since; next

Most common words with 來
Freq.
Word
Meaning

来

to come

起来

also pr. [qǐ​lai]

出来

to come out

回来

to return

过来

to come over

Component uses

Sound component in 8 characters (3 verified)

麥 麦 萊 睞 淶 徠 賚 棶

Iconic component in 3 characters (3 verified)

麥 麦 𠩺

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

麦

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*mə.rˤək (> *mə.rˤə)

loj

lái

a kind of wheat

*mə.rˤək (> *rˤə)

loj

lái

come


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 99.9840% of movies

16th most common character in movies

15th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Simplified

来

Unicode

U+4F86

Shuowen

“來，周所受瑞麥來麰，一來二縫。象芒朿之形。天所來也，故為行來之來。”


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