Chinese Character Wiki
中

zhōng, zhòng

central

Depicts a flagpole. There is a circle in the middle marking the center of the flagpole. In older forms of the character, the flagpole has streamers at the top and bottom used to show the direction of the wind

Evolution

中 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
中 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
中 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

中  

zhōng

central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain; within; among; in; middle; center; while (doing sth); during; (dialect) OK; all right

中  

Zhōng

China; Chinese; surname Zhong

中  

zhòng

to hit (the mark); to be hit by; to suffer; to win (a prize, a lottery)

Most common words with 中
Freq.
Word
Meaning

中

within

中国

China

其中

among

中心

center

集中

to concentrate

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (0 verified)

仲 衷

Sound component in 11 characters (4 verified)

种 冲 沖 钟 忠 仲 肿 衷 忡 盅 舯

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*truŋ

trjuwng

zhōng

center

*truŋ-s

trjuwngH

zhòng

hit the center


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 98.7826% of movies

121st most common character in movies

14th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+4E2D

Shuowen

“中，內也。从口、丨，上下通。，古文中。，籀文中。”


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