Chinese Character Wiki
死

sǐ

die

Original meaning: 

to bury a person

Depicts using a digging tool (歹) to bury a person (人). Based on the original meaning "to bury a person". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "die".

Components
歹 iconic component

歹  Iconic component

dǎi

  

evil, bad

Depicts a digging tool.

人 iconic component

人  Iconic component

rén

  

person

Depicts a person.

Evolution

死 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
死 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
死 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

死  

sǐ

die; dead; death; to die; impassable; uncrossable; inflexible; rigid; extremely; damned

Most common words with 死
Freq.
Word
Meaning

死

to die

死亡

to die

该死

Damn it!

杀死

to kill

死者

the dead

Component uses

Meaning component in 4 characters (1 verified)

屍 毙 斃 薨

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

葬

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*sijʔ

sijX

sǐ

die (v.)


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 96.5722% of movies

114th most common character in movies

317th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Unicode

U+6B7B

Shuowen

“死，澌也，人所離也。从歺，从人。，古文死如此。”


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