Chinese Character Wiki
子

zi, zǐ

child

Pictograph of a small child with its two arms outstretched.

Evolution

子 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
子 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
子 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

子  

zi

offspring, child; fruit, seed of; 1st terrestrial branch; (noun suffix)

子  

zǐ

son; child; seed; egg; small thing; 1st earthly branch: 11 p.m.-1 a.m., midnight, 11th solar month (7th December to 5th January), year of the Rat; Viscount, fourth of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wǔ​děng​jué​wèi]; ancient Chinese compass point: 0° (north)

Most common words with 子
Freq.
Word
Meaning

孩子

child

儿子

son

子

son

房子

house

妻子

wife

Component uses

Meaning component in 20 characters (9 verified)

好 存 字 李 孩 孙 孫 季 孤 孟 孽 籽 孺 孢 孪 孿 孳 孥 囝 孨

Sound component in 5 characters (2 verified)

字 仔 孜 籽 耔

Iconic component in 18 characters (18 verified)

了 學 学 教 保 包 育 弃 棄 孔 乳 孕 孝 孚 孛 孑 孓 斿

Remnant component in 3 characters (3 verified)

了 孑 孓

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ts]əʔ

tsiX

zǐ

1st earthly branch

*tsəʔ

tsiX

zǐ

child; gentleman, master


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.9359% of movies

47th most common character in movies

37th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+5B50

Shuowen

“子，十一月陽气動，萬物滋，人以為偁。象形。，古文子，从巛，象髮也。，籀文子，囟有髮，臂、脛在几上也。”


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