letter; symbol; character

Made up of [ child; sage; seed radical 39, mián roof radical 40]
Similar looking characters : xué (study)
Made with 6 strokes.
The concept of a 'child' in a house (with a 'roof') gives idea of study but it actually is a borrowed meaning from a character sounding the same

Related characters


Also uses component: biān (to exist) (to trust) hái (child) hǎo (good) hēng (prosperous) (season) kǒng (great) (plum) mèng (first month of a season) sūn (grandson) xiào (filial piety or obedience) xué (study)
Also uses mián component: ān (peace) bǎo (jewel) dìng (to set) (rich) gōng (palace) guān (official) hán (cold) jiā (house) (customer) nìng (better) róng (to hold) shì (room) shí (real) song (Song) (it) xué (cave) (proper) yuàn (courtyard) zāi (disaster)

Sounds same

(from)

Different tone

(child)

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Pronunciation

Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

stroke order for 字
Stroke order for character 字, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license

Proverbs

八字没一撇 bā zì méi yì piě You can't do everything on your own
字里行间 zì lǐ háng jiān Uncovering the hidden meaning or character
一字千金 yī zì qiān jīn A literary work of great quality and perfection that can not be improved and more generally applied to very helpful words of advice. The story is of a great writer who offered a reward to anyone who could suggest adding or removing a single character from a work he was very pleased with - the reward went unclaimed.
一字之师 yī zì zhī shī Needing only a slight change to become perfect. Praise for work that is nearly perfect but requires an expert to complete. The story is of a poem that was greatly improved by a great poet changing just one character.