字 zì letter; symbol; character
Made up of [子 zǐ child; sage; seed radical 39, 宀 mián roof radical 40]Similar looking characters : 学 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 子 zǐ component: 存 biān (to exist) 孚 fú (to trust) 孩 hái (child) 好 hǎo (good) 亨 hēng (prosperous) 季 jì (season) 孔 kǒng (great) 李 lǐ (plum) 孟 mèng (first month of a season) 孙 sūn (grandson) 孝 xiào (filial piety or obedience) 学 xué (study)
Also uses 宀 mián component: 安 ān (peace) 宝 bǎo (jewel) 定 dìng (to set) 富 fù (rich) 宫 gōng (palace) 官 guān (official) 寒 hán (cold) 家 jiā (house) 客 kè (customer) 宁 nìng (better) 容 róng (to hold) 室 shì (room) 实 shí (real) 宋 song (Song) 它 tā (it) 穴 xué (cave) 宜 yí (proper) 院 yuàn (courtyard) 灾 zāi (disaster)
Sounds same
自 zì (from)Different tone
子 zǐ (child)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
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.