Chinese Character Wiki
寸

cùn

(hand), inch

Original meaning: 

pulse point on wrist

Pictograph of a hand with a line marking a spot on the wrist. In traditional Chinese medicine this spot on the wrist where the pulse can be taken is called the 寸口.

Evolution

寸 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

寸  

cùn

inch; small, tiny; KangXi radical 41; a unit of length; thumb

Most common words with 寸
Freq.
Word
Meaning

英寸

inch (unit of length equal to 2.54 cm.)

寸

inch

尺寸

size

手无寸铁

lit. not an inch of steel (idiom); unarmed and defenseless

头寸

money market

Component uses

Meaning component in 6 characters (5 verified)

导 導 討 讨 寺 吋

Sound component in 7 characters (2 verified)

村 尊 忖 紂 纣 酎 吋

Iconic component in 24 characters (24 verified)

对 對 得 将 將 专 專 射 守 付 封 尊 夺 奪 耐 冠 辱 尉 肘 虢 㝵 寽 尃 尌

Simplified component in 4 characters (4 verified)

时 过 专 衬

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[tsʰ]ˤu[n]-s

tshwonH

cùn

thumb; inch


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 15.9058% of movies

1712th most common character in movies

1904th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+5BF8

Shuowen

“寸，十分也。人手卻一寸動，謂之寸口。从又，从一。”


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