chē

vehicle

Pictograph of a war chariot. The simplified character was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character .

Evolution

车 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
车 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
车 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
车 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
车 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

() 

chē

cart, vehicle; carry in cart; car; vehicle; CL:|[liàng]; machine; to shape with a lathe; Kangxi radical 159

() 

Chē

surname Che

() 

war chariot (archaic); rook (in Chinese chess); rook (in chess)

Most common words with 车
Freq.
Word
Meaning

car

汽车

car

车辆

vehicle

开车

to drive a car

出租车

taxi

Component uses

Sound component in 4 characters (2 verified)

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[t.qʰ](r)A

tsyhae

chē

chariot

*C.q(r)a

kjo

chariot


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 87.6021% of movies

153rd most common character in movies

361st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Traditional

Unicode

U+8F66


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