guī

return

Phonosemantic compound. 𠂤 represents the sound while and represent the meaning.

Components
𠂤 sound component

𠂤  Sound component

duī

  

mound

止 meaning component

  Meaning component

zhǐ

  

(foot), stop

帚 meaning component

  Meaning component

zhǒu

  

broom

Alludes to soldiers sweeping away enemies when returning home victoriously.

Evolution

歸 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

guī

return; return to, revert to; to return; to go back to; to give back to; (of a responsibility) to be taken care of by; to belong to; to gather together; (used between two identical verbs) despite; to marry (of a woman) (old); division on the abacus with a one-digit divisor

() 

Guī

surname Gui

Most common words with 歸
Freq.
Word
Meaning

to return

回归

to return to

无家可归

homeless

归还

to return sth

归属

to belong to

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]ʷəj

kjw+j

guī

return (v.)


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 41.8228% of movies

1068th most common character in movies

933rd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

18

Simplified

Unicode

U+6B78

Shuowen

“歸,女嫁也。从止,从婦省,聲。,籀文,省。”


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