Chinese Character Wiki
午

wǔ

noon

Pictograph of a pestle used for pounding rice, now written as 杵. The current meaning "noon" is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

午 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

午  

wǔ

noon; 7th terrestrial branch; 7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., noon, 5th solar month (6th June-6th July), year of the Horse; ancient Chinese compass point: 180° (south)

Most common words with 午
Freq.
Word
Meaning

下午

afternoon

上午

morning

中午

noon

午餐

lunch

午饭

lunch

Component uses

Sound component in 7 characters (4 verified)

許 许 御 杵 忤 迕 仵

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

御

Unknown component in 1 character (0 verified)

卸

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[m].qʰˤaʔ

nguX

wǔ

7th earthly branch

*m-qʰˤaʔ

nguX

wǔ

resist; cross-wise


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 56.1749% of movies

731st most common character in movies

1004th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+5348

Shuowen

“午，啎也。五月陰氣午逆陽，冒地而出。此予矢同意。”


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