Chinese Character Wiki
称

chēng, chèn, chèng

call

Original meaning: 

measure weight

Simplified form of 稱. Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 爯 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "measure weight". The meaning later shifted to "lift", "raise", "praise", "reputation", and "call".

Components
禾 meaning component

禾  Meaning component

hé

  

grain stalk

Alludes to measuring the weight of grain.

尔 simplified component

尔  Simplified component

ěr

  

you

Shorthand for the 爯 component in the traditional character 稱.

Evolution

称 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
称 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
称 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

称 (稱) 

chēng

call; name, brand; address; say; to weigh; to state; to name; name; appellation; to praise

称 (稱) 

chèn

to fit; balanced; suitable

称 (稱) 

chèng

variant of 秤[chèng]; steelyard

Most common words with 称
Freq.
Word
Meaning

称

to weigh

称为

called

称呼

to call

声称

to claim

称之为

to call it...

Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 51.6098% of movies

882nd most common character in movies

449th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Traditional

稱

Unicode

U+79F0


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