xià

under

Originally a small line or dot below a longer line, indicating "down". The vertical line was added to distinguish the character from (two). Opposite of .

Evolution

下 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

xià

under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down; downwards; below; lower; later; next (week etc); second (of two parts); to decline; to go down; to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc); measure word to show the frequency of an action

Most common words with 下
Freq.
Word
Meaning

down

一下

one time

下来

to come down

下去

to go down

下午

afternoon

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

Sound component in 2 characters (1 verified)

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*gˤraʔ

haeX

xià

down

*m-gˤraʔ-s

haeH

xià

descend


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.9359% of movies

53rd most common character in movies

42nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+4E0B

Shuowen

“丅,底也。指事。下,篆文丅。”


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