字

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Han character

字 (radical 39 子+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 十弓木 (JND), four-corner 3040₇, composition ⿱宀子)

1. letter, character, word

References

• KangXi: page 277, character 18
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6942
• Dae Jaweon: page 545, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1010, character 2
• Unihan data for U+5B57

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Cantonese

simpl. and trad.
字

Hanzi

字 (jyutping zi6, Yale ji6)

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Japanese

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle Chinese 字 with the southern pronunciation (kango, Go-on).

Noun

字 (hiragana じ, romaji ji)

1. a letter, character

   この字は何と読みますか？

   このじはなんとよみますか？

   kono ji wa nanto yomimasuka?

   How do you pronounce this letter?

2. handwriting

   彼女は字が上手い。

   かのじょはじがうまい。

   kanojo wa ji ga umai.

   She has good handwriting.

Counter

字 (hiragana じ, romaji ji)

1. letters, characters

   40字以内で書いてください。

   よんじゅうじいないでかいてください。

   yonjū-ji inai de kaite kudasai.

   Please write it down within 40 letters.

Kanji

字 (grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: じ (ji)
• Kun: あざ (aza), うむ (umu), ます (masu)

Compounds

• 十字 (じゅうじ, jūji): cross
• 字解 (じかい, jikai)
• 字義 (じぎ, jigi): the meaning of a word
• 字源 (じげん, jigen): the construction of a character
• 字体 (じたい, jitai): font or lettering
• 字典 (じてん, jiten): character dictionary
• 字母 (じぼ, jibo): letter (of the alphabet)
• 漢字 (かんじ, kanji): Chinese characters

  漢字返し (kanji-gaeshi) kanji repeater

• 文字 (もじ, moji): letter, character, or ideograph
• 字引 (じびき, jibiki): dictionary
• 数字 (すうじ, sūji): numeral or number

Etymology 2

Shortened form of あざな azana "a section of a village" of ancient Japanese origin (wago).

Noun

字 (hiragana あざ, romaji aza)

1. a section of a village

Derived terms

• 大字
• 小字

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Korean

Hanja

字
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 자 (revised: ja, McCune-Reischauer: cha)

• Name (hangeul): 글자()

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Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
字

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: [ tsɨ˥˩ ]

Hanzi

字 (pinyin zì (zi4), Wade-Giles tzu⁴)

Noun

字 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin zì)

1. Chinese writing
2. (Beginning Mandarin) Chinese character; Chinese characters
3. -shaped
4. ​ (archaic) Chinese style name

Derived terms

• 丁字
• 写字
• 文字
• trad. 漢字, simpl. 汉字

See also

• Special:Prefixindex/字

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Middle Chinese

simpl. and trad.
字

Etymology

From Old Chinese 字 (ʒǝh).

Pronunciation

• IPA: [dzi]

Han character

字 (*dzhiə̀)

Noun

字 (Baxter dziH)

1. Chinese writing
2. Chinese character; Chinese characters
3. (archaic) Chinese style name

Descendants

• Cantonese: 字
• Mandarin: 字 (zì)
• Min Nan: 字

References

• http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wbaxter/pdf/d181-188.pdf
• http://xiang.free.fr/leiden-en.pdf
• http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/Linguistics/papers/2004/anderson.pdf (dead link)

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Min Nan

simpl. and trad.
字

Pronunciation

• (Quanzhou) IPA: [ li˧˧ ]
• (Zhangzhou:) IPA: [ ʑi˧˧ ]

Noun

字 (traditional and simplified, POJ jī or lī)

1. Chinese writing
2. Chinese character; Chinese characters
3. (archaic) Chinese style name

Derived terms

• 文字
• trad. 漢字, simpl. 汉字

See also

• Special:Prefixindex/字

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Old Chinese

simpl. and trad.
字

Noun

字 (ʒǝh)

1. Chinese writing
2. Chinese character; Chinese characters
3. Chinese style name

Verb

字 (ʒǝh)

1. to give birth (to lay an egg, in the case of a bird)
2. to nurse
3. to nurture
4. to love
5. to marry; to wed
6. to educate

References

• http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/chinese-dictionary/dico_字.html
• http://140.111.34.46/cgi-bin/dict/GetContent.cgi?Database=dict&DocNum=130109&GraphicWord=yes&QueryString=字

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Vietnamese

Han character

字 (tự, chữ, tợ)

Readings

• Nôm: chữ, tự, tợ

References

• Thiều Chửu : Hán Việt Tự Điển Hà Nội 1942
• Trần Văn Chánh: Từ Điển Hán Việt NXB Trẻ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999
• Vũ Văn Kính: Đại Tự Điển Chữ Nôm , NXB Văn Nghệ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999

Compounds

• 字儒
• 字喃 (chữ Nôm)