wǔ
noon
Pictograph of a pestle used for pounding rice, now written as 杵. The current meaning "noon" is a phonetic loan.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
wǔ
noon; 7th terrestrial branch; 7th earthly branch: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., noon, 5th solar month (6th June-6th July), year of the Horse; ancient Chinese compass point: 180° (south)
Component uses
Unknown component in 1 character (0 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[m].qʰˤaʔ | nguX | wǔ | 7th earthly branch |
*m-qʰˤaʔ | nguX | wǔ | resist; cross-wise |
Statistics
HSK level 1
Appears in 56.1749% of movies
731st most common character in movies
1004th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 4 |
Unicode | U+5348 |
Shuowen | “午,啎也。五月陰氣午逆陽,冒地而出。此予矢同意。” |
Sources
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