wéiwěi

only

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
口 meaning component

  Meaning component

kǒu

  

mouth

隹 sound component

  Sound component

zhuī

  

bird

Evolution

唯 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
唯 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

wéi

only; yes; -ism; alone

Most common words with 唯
Freq.
Word
Meaning

-ism

唯一

only

唯物主义

materialism, philosophical doctrine that physical matter is the whole of reality

唯心主义

philosophy of idealism, the doctrine that external reality is a product of consciousness

辩证唯物主义

dialectical materialism

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ɢʷij (< *ɢʷuj?)

ywij

wéi

only


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 68.5888% of movies

663rd most common character in movies

1094th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

11

Unicode

U+552F

Shuowen

“唯,諾也。从口,隹聲。”


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