Chinese Character Wiki
今

jīn

now

Original meaning: 

closed mouth

Depicts a closed mouth. Upside-down 曰. The meaning "now" is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

今 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
今 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
今 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

今  

jīn

now, today, modern era; now; the present time; current; contemporary; this (day, year etc)

Most common words with 今
Freq.
Word
Meaning

今天

today

今晚

tonight

今年

this year

今日

today

今

today

Component uses

Sound component in 18 characters (8 verified)

金 念 含 陰 琴 貪 贪 禽 吟 岑 矜 黔 芩 钤 衾 妗 衿 侌

Iconic component in 2 characters (2 verified)

貪 贪

Remnant component in 2 characters (2 verified)

金 禽

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]r[ə]m

kim

jīn

now


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 96.0436% of movies

183rd most common character in movies

336th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+4ECA

Shuowen

“今，是時也。从亼，从乁。乁，古文及。”


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