Chinese Character Wiki
已

yǐ

already

Original meaning: 

snake-like or insect-like creature

Derived from 巳. Depicts a snake-like or insect-like creature. Based on the original meaning "snake-like or insect-like creature". The current meaning "already" is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

已 Bronze script Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)

Bronze script

Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)
已 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

已  

yǐ

already; finished; stop; to stop; then; afterwards

Most common words with 已
Freq.
Word
Meaning

已经

already

已

already

而已

that's all

早已

long ago

不已

endlessly

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

异

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

导

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ɢ(r)əʔ

yiX

yǐ

cease; already


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 99.0549% of movies

129th most common character in movies

117th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+5DF2


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