jīn
axe
Pictograph of an axe for chopping wood.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
jīn
a catty (approximately 500 g); an axe; keen, shrewd; KangXi radical number 69; catty; (PRC) weight equal to 500 g; (Tw) weight equal to 600 g; (HK, Malaysia, Singapore) slightly over 604 g
Most common words with 斤
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
kilogram (kg) | ||
catty | ||
to haggle over every ounce | ||
jack (for lifting weight) | ||
tweedledum and tweedledee |
Component uses
Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)
Unknown component in 1 character (1 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[k]ər | kj+n | jīn | axe; catty |
Statistics
HSK level 2
Appears in 3.6201% of movies
2553rd most common character in movies
1866th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 4 |
Unicode | U+65A4 |
Shuowen | “斤,斫木也。象形。” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.933-934
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