Chinese Character Wiki

祖

zǔ

ancestor

Phonosemantic compound. 礻 represents the meaning and 且 represents the sound.

Components
礻 meaning component

礻  Meaning component

shì

  

show

礻 is a component form of 示.

且 sound component

且  Sound component

qiě

  

moreover

Evolution

祖 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

祖  

zǔ

ancestor, forefather; grandfather; ancestor; forefather; grandparents

祖  

Zǔ

surname Zu

Most common words with 祖
Freq.
Word
Meaning

祖国

motherland

祖母

father's mother

祖父

father's father

祖

ancestor

祖先

ancestor

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[ts]ˤaʔ

tsuX

zǔ

ancestor


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 17.3154% of movies

1391st most common character in movies

1025th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+7956

Shuowen

“祖，始廟也。从示，且聲。”


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