Chinese Character Wiki
鬼

guǐ

ghost

Pictograph of a person (人) with the head of a ghost/demon (甶). 厶 was later added as a decorative mark.

Components
甶 iconic component

甶  Iconic component

fú

  

human's head

Used here to depict the head of a ghost/demon.

人 iconic component

人  Iconic component

rén

  

person

厶 distinguishing component

厶  Distinguishing component

sī, mǒu

  

private, selfish

Evolution

鬼 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

鬼  

guǐ

ghost; spirit of dead; devil; demon; terrible; damnable; clever; sly; crafty; (suffix for sb with a certain vice or addiction etc); one of the 28 constellations

Most common words with 鬼
Freq.
Word
Meaning

鬼

ghost

见鬼

curse it!

魔鬼

devil

吸血鬼

leech

鬼魂

ghost

Component uses

Meaning component in 17 characters (2 verified)

魔 醜 魂 魏 魄 魁 魅 魘 魇 魑 魉 魎 魃 魍 魈 魆 魖

Sound component in 9 characters (3 verified)

塊 畏 瑰 愧 魁 槐 傀 隗 嵬

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

畏

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*k-ʔujʔ

kjw+jX

guǐ

ghost


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 61.0604% of movies

470th most common character in movies

1042nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+9B3C

Shuowen

“鬼，人所歸為鬼。从人，象鬼頭。鬼陰氣賊害，从厶。，古文从示。”


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