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)

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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.