zi

child

Pictograph of a small child with its two arms outstretched.

Evolution

子 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
子 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
子 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
子 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
子 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

zi

offspring, child; fruit, seed of; 1st terrestrial branch; (noun suffix)

 

son; child; seed; egg; small thing; 1st earthly branch: 11 p.m.-1 a.m., midnight, 11th solar month (7th December to 5th January), year of the Rat; Viscount, fourth of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wǔ​děng​jué​wèi]; ancient Chinese compass point: 0° (north)

Most common words with 子
Freq.
Word
Meaning

孩子

child

儿子

son

son

房子

house

妻子

wife

Component uses

Meaning component in 21 characters (10 verified)

孿

Sound component in 5 characters (2 verified)

Iconic component in 16 characters (16 verified)

Remnant component in 3 characters (3 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ts]əʔ

tsiX

1st earthly branch

*tsəʔ

tsiX

child; gentleman, master


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.9359% of movies

47th most common character in movies

37th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+5B50

Shuowen

“子,十一月陽气動,萬物滋,人以為偁。象形。,古文子,从巛,象髮也。,籀文子,囟有髮,臂、脛在几上也。”


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