Chinese Character Wiki
左

zuǒ

left

Pictograph of a left hand. The 工 (work) component was added later to represent the meaning "help; assist", now written as 佐.

Components
𠂇 iconic component

𠂇  Iconic component

zuǒ

  

left hand

工 meaning component

工  Meaning component

gōng

  

work

Evolution

左 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

左  

zuǒ

left; east; unorthodox, improper; the Left (politics); unorthodox; queer; wrong; differing; opposite; variant of 佐[zuǒ]

左  

Zuǒ

surname Zuo

Most common words with 左
Freq.
Word
Meaning

左右

nearby

左

left

左边

left

左手

left hand

左侧

left side

Component uses

Sound component in 3 characters (2 verified)

差 佐 惰

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

差

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*tsˤa[j]ʔ

tsaX

zuǒ

left (side)

*tsˤa[j]ʔ

tsaX

zuǒ

assist

*tsˤarʔ-s

tsaH

zuǒ

assist


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 39.7886% of movies

972nd most common character in movies

782nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+5DE6

Shuowen

“左，手相左助也。从、工。”


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