Dong Chinese dictionary

wài

outside

Phonosemantic compound. 卜 represents the meaning and 月 represents the sound.

Components

卜 Iconic component

bo, bǔ

fortune telling

Depicts the cracks on the outside of a turtle shell.

月 Sound component

yuè

moon

Looks like 夕, which is also a pictograph of a moon.

外 and 月 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.外 /*[ŋ]ʷˤa[t]-s/
月 /*[ŋ]ʷat/

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 月 than it was in ancient scripts.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

外

wài

out, outside, external; foreign; outside; in addition; external

Most common words with 外

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	外	outside
	另外	additional
	外面	outside
	意外	unexpected
	之外	outside

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

季旭昇《說文新證》p.555-556

漢語多功能字庫

Freq.

Word

Meaning