Chinese Character Wiki
通

tōng, tòng

pass through

Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 甬 represents the sound.

Components
辶 meaning component

辶  Meaning component

chuò

  

walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

甬 sound component

甬  Sound component

yǒng, tǒng

  

path

Evolution

通 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
通 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
通 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

通  

tōng

pass through, common, communicate; to go through; to know well; (suffix) expert; to connect; to communicate; open; to clear; classifier for letters, telegrams, phone calls etc

通  

tòng

classifier for an activity, taken in its entirety (tirade of abuse, stint of music playing, bout of drinking etc)

Most common words with 通
Freq.
Word
Meaning

通过

by means of

通

to go through

通知

to notify

普通

common

通常

regular

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

嗵

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*l̥ˤoŋ

thuwng

tōng

penetrate


Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 89.2039% of movies

291st most common character in movies

190th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Unicode

U+901A

Shuowen

“通，達也。从辵，甬聲。”


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