dōng

winter

Original meaning: 

tip, extremity

Depicts a rope with knots at both ends. Based on the original meaning "tip, extremity", now written as . The meaning later shifted to "winter" (the final season of the year).

Evolution

冬 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
冬 Bronze script Mid Warring States (~300 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Warring States (~300 BC)
冬 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

dōng

winter, 11th lunar month; winter

() 

Dōng

surname Dong

() 

dōng

(onom.) beating a drum; rat-a-tat

Most common words with 冬
Freq.
Word
Meaning

冬天

winter

rat-a-tat

冬季

winter

冬眠

hibernation

冬至

Winter Solstice, 22nd of the 24 solar terms 二十四節氣|二十四节气 22nd December-5th January

Component uses

Meaning component in 3 characters (2 verified)

Sound component in 9 characters (3 verified)

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*tˤuŋ

towng

dōng

winter


Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 9.0822% of movies

1889th most common character in movies

1384th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+51AC

Shuowen

“冬,四時盡也。从仌,从夂。夂,古文終字。,古文冬从日。”


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