Chinese Character Wiki
右

yòu

right

Pictograph of a right hand. The 口 (mouth) component was added later to distinguish the character from 又.

Components
又 sound,iconic component

又  Sound Iconic component

yòu

  

(hand), again

Depicts a right hand.

口 distinguishing component

口  Distinguishing component

kǒu

  

mouth

Evolution

右 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

右  

yòu

right; west; right-wing; right (-hand); the Right (politics); west (old)

Most common words with 右
Freq.
Word
Meaning

左右

nearby

右

right (-hand)

右边

right side

右手

right hand

右侧

right side

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

佑 醢

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ɢ]ʷəʔ

hjuwX

yòu

right hand

*[ɢ]ʷəʔ-s (~ *m-qʷəʔ)

hjuwH

yòu

right hand


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 37.3699% of movies

1018th most common character in movies

783rd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+53F3

Shuowen

“右，手口相助也。从又，从口。”


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