Chinese Character Wiki
再

zài

again

Origin unclear. The 二 (two) component hints at the meaning, conveying "second" or "again". The other component seems to depict a fish, similar to 冓, but its purpose is unclear.

Components
二 meaning component

二  Meaning component

èr

  

two

◎ unknown component

◎  Unknown component

  

characterless component

Purpose unclear. Seems to depict a fish, similar to 冓.

Evolution

再 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
再 Bronze script Early Warring States (~400 BC)

Bronze script

Early Warring States (~400 BC)
再 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
再 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
再 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

再  

zài

again, twice, re-; again; once more; re-; second; another; then (after sth, and not until then); no matter how ... (followed by an adjective or verb, and then (usually) 也[yě] or 都[dōu] for emphasis)

Most common words with 再
Freq.
Word
Meaning

再

again

再见

goodbye

再次

again

不再

no more

再说

to say again

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ts]ˤə(ʔ)-s

tsojH

zài

twice; a second time


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.7918% of movies

102nd most common character in movies

242nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Unicode

U+518D

Shuowen

“再，一舉而二也。从冓省。”


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